More Maine residents can have their criminal records sealed • Maine Morning Star

Earlier this month, more people in the state of Maine were given the opportunity to seal their criminal pasts.

Two Laws came into force on August 9, a REMOVED the age-related requirement for the sealing of previous convictions and the other allowed People can petition to seal their criminal records related to now-legal marijuana offenses.

“This is a great first step for people to come clean about their past with regard to employment and other purposes,” said the criminal defense Attorney Matthew Morgan, Partner at McKee Morgan.

Morgan noted, however, that it is important for people to read the fine print of Sealing process after the verdict. “Some professional licensing and law enforcement agencies will still have access to these records,” Morgan explained, “but otherwise they will be sealed and people will be allowed to claim that they have no criminal record because of the sealing.”

Morgan’s office has begun contacting former clients who they believe are eligible to request sealing of their records under these new laws. Since the changes only went into effect this month, they cannot yet estimate how many people will take advantage of their new opportunity to seal their criminal records.

Barbara Cardone, director of legal affairs and public relations for the Maine Attorney General’s Office, declined to provide information on the number of people who have applied her Criminal records will be sealed according to the new parameters.”Our data analysts are busy with internal projects and we have been told they will not be available to compile statistics for external requests until those projects are completed,” Cardone wrote in an email.

These two changes were based on Recommendations from the Criminal Records Review Committee, of which Morgan is a member. The legislature has temporarily founded The committee should examine ways to restrict public access to criminal records, particularly those related to nonviolent crimes and crimes involving marijuana use.

The state of Maine legalized recreational marijuana use in 2017, but Maine residents continue to face criminal records for possession and cultivation prior to legalization.

The committee’s final meeting is scheduled for November 19. It is seeking public feedback on a number of other possible proposals to adjust eligibility for sealing criminal records and how the state should treat convictions for decriminalized conduct. among other things.

“The committee is still meeting, accepting public comments and looking for ways to make people more aware of the existing law,” Morgan said: “And we have continued to discuss ways to improve sealing laws in Maine for many years, particularly the possibility of automatic sealing.”

In the last session, lawmakers also considered a bill that automatically sealed Criminal record information for marijuana-related offenses that are no longer illegal.

The proposal, which had also been recommended by the Criminal Records Review Committee, was rejected by Parliament after objections were raised about costs and possible violations of the First Amendment.

Julie Finn, a Justice Department analyst, said automatic sealing cannot be implemented without significant additional resources. The cost of the change is estimated at $633,185 for the 2024-25 fiscal year, with ongoing funds needed to pay the salaries of additional staff to review and seal records.

In contrast, none of the bills passed included budget notes, as it is assumed that the associated costs can be covered by existing appropriations. In the Senate, Senator Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) said during the vote on the bill that no additional appropriations were needed because requests to seal records are not common. “The sad thing about this process is that it is not used that often,” Carney said.

The Maine Press Association and others have been concerned that automatically sealing records would violate the public’s First Amendment right to access criminal case records. This is in contrast to the two laws passed that keep some conviction records publicly available by requiring a post-conviction review petition.

The Maine Press Association represents about 50 newspapers and digital news outlets in the state, including the Maine Morning Star.

The committee discussed other state models for automatic sealing during its last session on August 13.

Lawmakers agree that records of marijuana offenses should be sealed, but not automatically

Petition-based record sealing has been common practice in many states for years, but at least 12 states have laws allowing automatic sealing – also known as “clean slate” record sealing – says Darlene Shores Lynch, senior legislative researcher at the Office of Policy and Legal Analysis.

This generally means that someone from the state will review the records against the eligibility criteria — usually misdemeanors, less serious crimes, and pardons — and determine which ones qualify for sealing. Convictions for violent crimes, domestic violence, or that require sex offender registration are generally not eligible for this type of automatic sealing or petition-based sealing.

Pennslyvannia was one of the first to use the “Clean Slate” sealing of files and his law in 2018, although it actually took several years for the process to get underway. New York is the latest state to implement such a a law with its adoption in 2023, although this law provides for a three-year implementation period.

The specific eligibility criteria vary from state to state. Most states do what Maine’s proposal intended: They seal criminal records, meaning that while the records are retained, they cannot be viewed by the public and they largely cannot be used for employment, housing and other purposes.

Some states offer full expungement, but few actually destroy records and do so only under very specific eligibility criteria. Criminal records destruction is only available through a request-based process, not automatic, Shores Lynch told the committee.

“As we continue to consider this, there is a whole range of precedent in the states that allows for the continuation of clean slate legislation,” said Maine House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland), citing in particular precedent related to concerns that such laws could violate constitutional rights.

Members of the public also voiced their opinions during the recent meeting, urging the committee to again recommend automatic secrecy to lawmakers and to expand the authorization beyond the most minor criminal offenses.

“Many of you know and understand that people of color and marginalized groups are disproportionately incarcerated and that having a criminal record only reinforces this unjust and biased reality because in many cases serving a prison sentence does not mean that you will ultimately be released, but rather it feels like a life sentence of stigma,” says Molly Hoisser, manager at the Restorative Justice Project Maine, which supports people in their release from prison.

The committee is scheduled to meet twice – on September 24 and October 8 – before holding its final meeting on November 19. The public may provide public comments during these meetings or submit written comments by email to: [email protected] before 5:00 p.m. on November 18th.