Mercury News Explains the Restorative Power of Expungment
In “Wish Book: San Jose State expungement program can change lives of everyone involved,” the Mercury News described a free program for clean criminal record services run by teachers and students at San Jose State University. The program is called The Record Clearance Project, and it uses college student interns, teachers, and attorneys to help formerly incarcerated and convicted individuals clean their records with expungements and record sealing. One part of the program was reaching out to people who may be eligible but were not aware: “Research has found that barely more than 5% of people seek the legal relief within five years of becoming eligible.” The article explained how speakers at Elmwood Jail in Santa Clara County describe to the inmates how they became empowered to beat their addiction, get clean, and have their records expunged.
The Record Clearance Project operates only in Santa Clara County, although the article mentioned that the program will guide people in the right direction if the conviction is out of county. Not only does the program provide legal services, but also it offers mentorship from people previously involved in the criminal justice system. Peggy Stevenson, the program creator, said “ ‘Doing this life-changing, profoundly positive work, and having students be able to accurately see they have been the force that made this difference is so rewarding,’ . . . ‘I just love to step back and watch them do what they are trained to do, and worked hard to learn to do.’ ” More than 1,000 students have interned with the program, and it has a 99% success rate.
Clean slate clinics like The Record Clearance Project and the East Bay Community Law Center provide important access to free legal services. Mr. Reagan fully supports these endeavors and in the past has traded notes with clean slate staff attorneys in court. Mr. Reagan has observed that the students spend a great deal of time on each case and bring solid petitions. As a law student, Mr. Reagan helped a client obtain an expungement for a DUI over the district attorney’s objection, and the success in that case was one of his motivations to practice clean record law after he graduated law school. However, some of the clean slate programs have income limits and geographic limited. At the Law Office of David Reagan, Mr. Reagan handles clean record petitions in the Bay Area and throughout California at affordable rates with reliable communication. Contact attorney Reagan for a free consultation today.
