Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 266 - Who Benefits from Automatic Record Relief in California?

Everyday Injustice

This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Alissa Skog, who was lead author on the October report that found that nearly 2.5 million Californians are eligible to have their convictions automatically relieved under a little know law that allows for automatic expungement. “A criminal record can have profound and lasting impacts on people, affecting key areas of their life such as employment, parental rights, stable housing, access to safety-net benefits, and voting,” California Policy Lab noted. To address these “follow-on” punishments, the California legislature has enacted the most comprehensive automatic record relief laws in the country. Under these laws, all non-convictions (arrests that do not lead to a conviction), most misdemeanor convictions, and many low-level felony convictions are eligible for automatic relief after people complete their sentences and specified waiting periods. On Everyday Injustice, Alissa Skog discussed the upside of the law allowing people to get out from under collateral consequences of past convictions, but also some of the drawbacks including the lack of notifications. The report estimates the number of people likely to maintain a clean slate over the following five years.