Bipartisan pair looks to take Clean Slate a step further

The proposal would, among other things, totally expunge non-convictions from records.

• Katie Meyer
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 Matt Rourke / AP Photo

FILE PHOTO: The dome of the Pennsylvania Capitol is visible in Harrisburg.

(Harrisburg) — Just a few weeks after Pennsylvania’s landmark criminal record-sealing law took effect, two lawmakers are circulating a bill that would augment it.

It’s part of a broader effort to make the commonwealth’s criminal justice system less punitive.

The Clean Slate law, as it is known, automatically seals records for non-convictions, summary offenses, and most nonviolent misdemeanors after ten years with no further offenses.

The bill passed with broad, bipartisan support–and ushered a wave of similarly-minded bills into the forefront of the House and Senate.

But Philadelphia Democrat Sharif Street and Beaver County Republican Camera Bartolotta think the new law should go a little further.

They’re circulating a bill that would, among other things, totally expunge non-convictions from records.

Bartolotta said even without a conviction, those records can hurt people’s job chances.

“That’s something that has shocked a whole lot of people,” she said. “They think okay, someone’s been arrested and then proven that they were not guilty–no conviction or anything–but they still have that arrest on their record.”

The proposed bill would also automatically expunge crimes that are pardoned by the governor–something Bartolotta said “should have been done all along.”

Under current law, people have to petition courts to expunge records, even after their crimes are pardoned.

The process is generally lengthy, and can cost thousands of dollars.

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