Advocates are celebrating passage of a new Illinois law that automatically seals a person's non-violent criminal record three years after completing their sentence, based on a new bill that Gov. JB Pritzker has now signed into law.
Supporters say the measure signed into law last week will remove restrictions on getting certain loans, jobs and buying or renting a home.
The Clean Slate Act does not automatically seal the cases of a person with a violent offense. They will have to plead their case to a judge to seal their conviction.
State Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, a Democrat from Peoria, said sealing convictions allows people to reenter society, but it does not expunge a person’s record.
“The goal with this legislation is that once people have paid their debt to society, once people have been accountable for a bad decision, we have to put people in a position to move on with their lives,” Gordon-Booth said. “We have to put people in a position to be able to gainfully rejoin the economy.”
Gordon-Booth said under the previous policy, non-violent felony convictions would show up in background checks even years after a person committed a crime.
“Many of the individuals were getting in trouble between the ages of 18 and 24, oftentimes decades prior, and were still walking around with this black cloud, unable to now provide for their families, and they were stuck, calcified, oftentimes in poverty,” Gordon-Booth said.
She said the law will make it easier for them to find a job and reenter society quicker.
Opponents of the bill had concerns it would make people less responsible for their convictions and would put more strain on the state budget.
Gordon-Booth said this will not erase a person’s record and since it will be implemented in 2029, the state will have time to pay for the bill.
Toy Beasley, the president of the McLean County Reentry Council, said until now, getting records sealed was a long and complicated process.
“It was very limited, people that was getting it done, because the infrastructure, you only had so many judges, you only had so many court dates. And so there was some court system that was getting jam packed with record sealment,” Beasley said.
The new process will not start until 2029. Cases between 1970 and 2028 will be automatically sealed over time after starting.
Beasley said the McLean County Reentry Council is still working to get convictions sealed and change laws that restrict a person with a conviction’s movement.
“There shouldn't be the punishment after the punishment. Once a person goes to prison, completes their time, it should be over with,” Beasley said.
Beasley said under the new law, people will be less likely to reoffend because it will be easier find work and a place to live.
