UUPLAN in ACTION:
ANTI-MASS INCARCERATION
UUs across the nation have been awakened to the issues of how the extremely high rates of incarceration in America, especially for African American males, has created a new form of racial segregation and oppression that reinforces poverty, destroys families, and impoverishes us all as a country (see the book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander).
Senate Bill 391 in Harrisburg, introduced by Senator Timothy Solobay (D-Beaver, Washington, & Green), addresses a part of the criminal justice system that Alexander describes. The “Expungement of Criminal Records Act” would [as described by the Senator]
“amend Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) to allow individuals who have served their punishment and remained free of arrest or prosecution for seven to ten years, for nonviolent third and second degree misdemeanors, to petition the court for their record to be expunged. A low-level misdemeanor in a person’s past can often serve as a continual barrier when seeking work, long after they have completed their sentence. My legislation proposes that the Commonwealth join a growing number of states that have expanded their expungement laws to reduce the period during which a minor criminal record can punish people. This legislation would benefit not just former offenders, but Pennsylvania as a whole, by countering high rates of recidivism, relieving an overburdened pardon system, and providing an opportunity for ex-offenders to join our workforce.”
· Bill # 391: the bill was unanimously passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 17, 2013, had been waiting a vote by the full Senate, was passed by the full Senate on October 17, and has now gone to the State House of Representatives where it sits in the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Ron Marsico (R-Dauphin). The Minority Chair is Thomas Caltagirone (D-Berks).
What You Can Do: Reach your elected state representatives in the House and urge him or her to move SB 391 forward by contacting the leaders and members of the House Judiciary Committee.
For more information: Contact UUPLAN Anti-Mass Incarceration Team Co-Chairs, Nancy Anderson () and Marietta Tanner ().
Updated March 16, 2014