{"id":43314,"date":"2019-07-16T11:09:40","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T15:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=43314"},"modified":"2019-07-16T11:09:44","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T15:09:44","slug":"chester-county-begins-implementation-of-clean-slate-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=43314","title":{"rendered":"Chester County begins implementation of Clean Slate legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>WEST CHESTER \u2014 Chester County has joined all other counties across the state of Pennsylvania in automatically sealing non-violent criminal records and non-convictions for anyone who has remained crime-free for 10 years. The sealing of the records is part of the \u201cClean Slate\u201d legislation, and Pennsylvania is the first state in the nation to enact it.<\/p>\n

Because of the Clean Slate legislation, no longer will people have to file motions and pay to seal their records, as long as they meet the Clean Slate criteria.<\/p>\n

The responsibility to seal all eligible records within Chester County falls to the County\u2019s Clerk of Courts Office.\u00a0 Chester County Clerk of Courts Yolanda Van de Krol said, \u201cIn Chester County alone, two million people will have their low-level offenses or non-convictions automatically sealed in the next year.\u00a0 That means we are sealing about 163,000 cases every month for the next year to clean up the backlog of cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very exciting to be at the forefront of this type of criminal justice reform.\u00a0 Because of Clean Slate, a mistake will no longer define a person\u2019s life and limit their opportunities,\u201d added Van de Krol.<\/p>\n

Van de Krol also points out that the records will not be expunged.\u00a0 They will remain visible to law enforcement and judicial officers and can still be seen on FBI background checks, used by schools, hospitals and casinos. If anyone qualifies for an expungement, she highly urges them to apply for one, as their record will be destroyed rather than simply sealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Clean Slate legislation is designed to give people with a non-violent offense and a decade of crime-free life a chance to compete for better jobs,\u201d said Chester County Commissioners\u2019 Chair Michelle Kichline. \u201cIt is also valuable for counties like ours, where the unemployment rate is low, because it will open up opportunities for more people to participate in the workforce with skills that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone commented, \u201cAlthough it will take a great amount of time over the coming year to seal all of the retroactive files, ultimately the Clean Slate legislation will mean less bureaucracy, less red tape. More importantly, it will help prevent a lesser criminal charge that was received 10 years ago from becoming a much longer \u2018sentence\u2019 that prevents good job opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Terence Farrell added, \u201cIt is unusual to find instances where criminal justice reform legislation directly impacts the business community in a positive way.\u00a0 Chester County business leaders are always looking for dependable, qualified workers and implementing Clean Slate means that the older, minor or unfounded charges are sealed and do not follow anyone into a job interview.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clean Slate legislation passed in July of 2018. The first phase began in December and allowed for people who had old misdemeanors on their records and who had not been in trouble for a decade to apply for their records to be sealed. Chester County is in the top five counties in Pennsylvania for volume of cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST CHESTER \u2014 Chester County has joined all other counties across the state of Pennsylvania in automatically sealing non-violent criminal records and non-convictions for anyone who has remained crime-free for 10 years. The sealing of the records is part of the \u201cClean Slate\u201d legislation, and Pennsylvania is the first state in the nation to enact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[29,12298,12299,7426],"class_list":["post-43314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-chester-county","tag-clean-slate","tag-criminal-records","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43315,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43314\/revisions\/43315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}