The amount of criminal charges in Pennsylvania that will qualify for automatic record sealing beginning on Friday under the Clean Slate legislation of the state is really high. This number can be as high as forty million.
While law enforcement will still be able to pick up arrests and convictions, it will not be the public. this will be. The law covers non convictions, summary offences and most non violent misdemeanour related convictions. This includes prostitution, shoplifting and drunk driving.
When Clean Slate initially come into practice in December, residents having such forms of records required to rent lawyers and move to court to get them sealed. This is same as the case in different states across the country. Beginning this Friday in Pennsylvania, the automation method will begin once a decide signs off on a batch of eligible charges.
“It’s the first day in the history of the United States that records will be sealed by automation. And it is quite possible that in the first week more cases will be sealed by automation than have ever been sealed in the entire history of the United States.” This was the opinion of Sharon Dietrich, legal proceeding director at Community Legal Services, the non-profit group that helped make Clean Slate. This garnered overwhelming two-way support within the state’s Republican-controlled law-makers.
