For years after someone in New York served time for a conviction, criminal background checks too often prevent them from fully participating in economic and civic life. Unfortunately, the process for sealing criminal records in New York State created in 2017 does not match the urgency or magnitude of the problem. Applicants must endure a lengthy, expensive application and review process. Only 0.2 percent of New Yorkers who are eligible for sealing criminal records have successfully done so.
The Clean Slate NY Act (S.211/A.1029) is a common sense reform, which will provide justice-involved New Yorkers with employment, education, and housing opportunities by automatically sealing conviction records. With this legislation, certain individuals with criminal convictions would become eligible for record-sealing after the completion of probation or parole, assuming significant time passed since their last conviction (three years for misdemeanors and seven years for felonies). Certain offenses, including sex offenses, are exempted from sealing, and all records would remain available to employers in sensitive fields like education, elder care and public safety. Similar initiatives in other states across the country demonstrate that individuals with automatically sealed records are very unlikely to commit further crimes and that automatic sealing of records can reduce recidivism as individuals are better able to support themselves and their families. The Clean Slate Act...
Abbott Laboratories, the Illinois-based healthcare company that manufactures and sells infant formula and nutritional therapy products, has agreed to pay $384,999,040 to resolve allegations that i...