After years of deliberation, the New York State Meeting and Senate lastly agreed to go the Clear Slate Act (S.7551/A.1029C), a legislation that can mechanically clear an individual’s conviction document to allow them to have higher entry to jobs and housing.
Felony justice advocates have been elated, though fairly a number of of the housing measures that New York Metropolis management crusaded for have been not noted of the state price range and didn’t go throughout the extra-long legislative session this June.
Felony justice
Outdated conviction information disproportionately have an effect on Black and brown residents. In accordance with knowledge from the Middle for Neighborhood Alternate options (CCA), 80% of people within the metropolis with conviction information are Black or Latinx, which mirrors statewide developments. New York’s 2017 sealing legislation did work to hide an individual’s felony document in the event that they have been crime-free for a minimum of 10 years and had fewer than two offenses, but it surely’s not an automated course of.
CCA member Melinda Agnew stated she was sentenced to 3 years’ probation in October 1999. She accomplished her sentence with out incident, and since then, has turn into a mother, a grandmother, and a graduate with each bachelor’s and grasp’s levels. “But, 25 years later, regardless of all that I’ve achieved to offer again to my group, I’m nonetheless turned away from jobs, denied promotions, and rejected from housing packages due to my two-decade-old conviction,” stated Agnew. “The passage of the Clear Slate Act shall be transformative for me and tens of millions of New Yorkers who share my battle.”
With Clear Slate, previous conviction information could be sealed mechanically, with exceptions for legislation enforcement and work with weak populations. The brand new laws seals misdemeanor convictions after three years and a few felony convictions after eight years, so long as there aren’t any new expenses or convictions. Intercourse and non-drug Class A felonies offenses aren’t eligible for sealing with Clear Slate.
Many advocates and electeds have stated Clear Slate will cut back recidivism, strengthen the state’s workforce and financial sources, and assist proper racial inequities within the felony authorized system. Comparable laws has been handed in a number of different states, together with Utah, Connecticut, California, and Michigan.
“Clear Slate affords a real second likelihood to people who’ve absolutely paid their debt to society, enabling them to restart their lives and turn into constructive contributors to their communities,” stated Senate Majority Chief Andrea Stewart-Cousins in an announcement.
The legislative session was alleged to wrap on Thursday, June 8, in Albany. As a substitute, it ended up operating a number of days over as electeds, similar to Assemblymembers Al Taylor, Eddie Gibbs, and invoice sponsor Catalina Cruz, passionately argued for Clear Slate. It handed first within the Meeting, a lot to everybody’s tentative pleasure.
In accordance with the New York Public Curiosity Analysis Group (NYPIRG), fewer payments handed in each homes in 2023 in comparison with final session, principally due to a steep drop-off in approvals within the Meeting. Clear Slate has handed in a single home and never the opposite up to now.
Meeting Speaker Carl Heastie stated in an announcement, “The Meeting Majority is dedicated to constructing a felony justice system targeted on rehabilitation over punishment. This invoice is not going to solely assist us on that mission, however it’s going to present an answer to the workforce points many native companies proceed to face. The Clear Slate Act will give tens of millions of New Yorkers a second likelihood to do the precise factor and provides again to their group as soon as once more.”
Clear Slate was championed within the Senate by sponsor Senator Zellnor Myrie. By Saturday, June 10, it had handed within the Senate, too.
“I’m deeply proud to serve in a legislative physique that acknowledges the financial, ethical, and public security imperatives for passing Clear Slate,” stated Myrie in an announcement. “This laws makes it clear that New Yorkers who’ve served their sentences and returned to the group owe no different money owed earlier than they’ll rebuild their lives, receive housing and schooling, and safe gainful employment.”
Clear Slate would additionally seal previous felony information from courts and prosecutors throughout a brand new felony case and cops throughout an investigation; fingerprint-based background checks for jobs until working with kids, the aged, or weak adults; and a licensing officer processing a gun license utility. The legislation additionally is not going to have an effect on or invalidate any energetic order of safety, require the destruction of DNA submitted to the statewide, or require that DMV information be destroyed or sealed.
Now that the invoice has handed, there’s huge assist for Governor Kathy Hochul to signal it into legislation rapidly. Supporters embrace District Attorneys Eric Gonzalez (Brooklyn), Darrel Clark (Bronx), Alvin Bragg (Manhattan), and Melinda Katz (Queens), and Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.
“I applaud the State Legislature’s passage of the Clear Slate Act that may assist enhance communities, public security, and our financial system,” stated Adams in an announcement. “This invoice can open pathways to success for the greater than 2 million New Yorkers with an previous conviction document who’ve been blocked from entry to employment, housing, schooling, and different financial alternatives. With the elevated participation in our workforce and society created by this laws, New York is estimated to soak up an extra $7 billion yearly in state earnings, boosting our financial system and restoration from the pandemic.”
Housing
Whereas Clear Slate is being celebrated as a win, housing advocates are pissed off that the state didn’t adequately tackle the town’s housing scarcity, particularly because the asylum seeker disaster continues.
A coalition, together with president of the NAACP New York State Convention Hazel Dukes and Mayor Eric Adams, had shaped to demand housing options weeks earlier than the legislative session led to Albany.
The Legislature stated it was capable of work towards an settlement on historic lease protections and housing packages, such because the House owner Safety Plan, Housing Entry Voucher Program, Inexpensive Housing Rehabilitation Program, conversion of economic buildings, extension of 421-A, robust labor requirements, elevating the person condo enchancment cap, creation of a neighborhood inexpensive housing plan, and good-cause eviction legal guidelines.
They have been hopeful that their efforts had paid off however, in a joint assertion on Thursday, June 8, Stewart-Cousins and Heastie stated the housing measures weren’t included.
“Sadly, it was clear that we couldn’t come to an settlement with the governor on this plan,” they stated. “It takes all three events—the Senate, the Meeting, and the governor—to enact laws into legislation. There isn’t any debate: New York is experiencing a housing disaster. All three chambers should instantly redouble our efforts and provide you with a plan that the governor will signal into legislation. This plan should prioritize not solely the development of recent items of inexpensive housing but in addition strong protections for tenants, together with good-cause eviction.”
John Sanchez, govt director of the 5 Borough Housing Motion, stated legislative leaders fully failed New Yorkers by not prioritizing a housing package deal because the rental inventory dwindles.
“Manhattan lawmakers from wealthier neighborhoods relentlessly tried to slide poison capsules into housing insurance policies all through this complete session,” stated Sanchez in an announcement. “You noticed that within the price range and within the two months since. Rents are skyrocketing in Manhattan, the place the outdated FAR cap has blocked the power to create extra inexpensive items. Black and brown New Yorkers are leaving in droves as a result of it’s turn into tougher and tougher for them to stay right here. One thing has to offer.”
Sanchez stated that the housing disaster doesn’t run on Albany time and legislators ought to keep in Albany to seek out an precise resolution.
Moreover, Neighborhood Housing Enchancment Program (CHIP) advocates referred to as the one one of many housing payments that handed (S2980c/A6216b) “damaging and unconstitutional.” It could maintain present housing suppliers chargeable for actions that occurred courting again to 1986, driving away future funding in inexpensive housing.
“It is a invoice written by legal professionals to drum up extra enterprise for themselves on the expense of each renters and their housing suppliers,” stated CHIP Govt Director Jay Martin. “We’ve got a housing provide disaster and the respective housing chairs are advancing a invoice that will drive up shortage. If renters need to know who’s most chargeable for excessive rents on this metropolis, it’s the housing chairs within the Senate and Meeting.”
CHIP has even threatened to scrupulously problem the invoice within the courts.
As for the opposite housing measures that didn’t go, Martin stated they’re deeply disenchanted that lawmakers would finish this session with out additional legislative motion to guard tenants, construct extra housing, and decrease housing prices.
Subsequent steps for the governor
Advocates and electeds alike are fiercely urging Hochul to signal Clear Slate into legislation quickly. A lot of the payments handed got here within the “flurry of late Could and early June” and few have been signed. Hochul technically has till the top of the calendar 12 months to signal the payments into legal guidelines.
Hochul stated in a press convention on Monday that she is happy that the model of Clear Slate that handed makes the required exceptions for main felony offenses like homicide and rape. She didn’t explicitly point out whether or not she would signal the invoice.
On the housing entrance, it’s not wholly a shock that the initiatives didn’t go throughout this session, contemplating that Hochul conceded combating for her $800,000 housing manufacturing and affordability plan within the state price range earlier this 12 months after immense pushback from suburban and Republican lawmakers.Ariama C. Lengthy is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam Information. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps hold her writing tales like this one; please contemplate making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity at this time by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
