Nearly three million people in Pennsylvania have a criminal record and more than 200,000 new criminal cases are filed each year, reported PennLive.com.
With each conviction comes a set of collateral
consequences – nearly 900 in Pennsylvania – that restrict housing, employment
and even education.
A new project aims to reduce those effects and help
people with criminal convictions get a new start.
TImeDone Pennsylvania is a new program from the
Alliance for Safety and Justice – a national criminal justice reform non-profit
– seeking to help people clear their records.
TimeDone provides connections to legal resources and
employers for people with criminal records, free background checks, as well as
other services like person finance workshops and planning for ownership.
The group is hosting a family-friendly block party
from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Break the Chainz, 2134 N 6th Street,
Harrisburg. The event is a launch party for the new initiative.
Along with direct support for people with criminal
records, TimeDone and the Alliance for Safety and Justice are advocating for
the state legislature to expand eligibility for record sealing – an effort
currently underway in the House and Senate – making changes to the state’s
record sealing process and making record sealing automatic for some low-level
misdemeanors.
The legislature passed a Clean Slate Law in 2018 that automatically seals some
low-level offenses after 10 years of the person remaining crime free. A bill
working through the senate right now would shorten that time to seven years for
misdemeanors, five years for summary offenses and expand the law to include
some low-level drug offenses.
More information about TimeDone is available
at timedone.org.
To read more CLICK HERE
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