In the fall of 2014, Jay Jordan had just finished helping launch former San Joaquin County Congressman Jerry McNerney to reelection victory as a field director for McNerney's campaign.
But with the campaign over, Jordan couldn't find a job in Stockton. And after finally finding part-time work in Los Angeles, he couldn't find a place to live, he said.
"I was making 17 bucks an hour and living in my car," Jordan said. "I was starving. I would take one Top Ramen and split it in half … I would smoke a quarter of a cigarette and put it out."
Jordan, 37, struggled for years to find work and shelter due to a criminal conviction from when he was a teenager, he said. Now the CEO of Alliance for Safety and Justice — a nonprofit focused on criminal justice reform — Jordan still cannot sign most rental agreements or volunteer at his child's school due to his record, he said.
But some barriers to employment and other opportunities for people with criminal records could be lifted under a new California law that Jordan's organization and other justice reform groups pushed for. The law allows those who have been to prison to ask the courts to permanently seal their records, if they have gone four years without being convicted of a felony.
Jordan was among the first people in California to file a petition under Senate Bill 731 at the San Joaquin County courthouse in Stockton...
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