The Long Wait for a Second Chance
Under a new law, NJ’s convicts must still wait ten years to clear their criminal records.
A few weeks ago, Gov. Christie signed A206 into law. That bill makes various revisions to New Jersey’s criminal code, specifically in the area of expungements. Sadly, the Governor and Legislature didn’t seize the opportunity to shorten the decade-long wait convicts must endure before they can request redaction of their criminal records.
Expungements are the process by which persons who have been arrested for and/or convicted of crimes (both indictable “felonies” and disorderly persons “misdemeanors”) can have their criminal records sealed. Obtaining an expungement confers a host of benefits, including the ability to honestly answer that one has never been convicted of a crime. (The expungement process ends with a court order that, for virtually all legal purposes, retroactively erases the conviction.)
For many years now, expungements in New Jersey have been subject to a ten-year time bar. This waiting period begins running only after the convicted individual completes their prison sentence and parole, pays any fines, and otherwise satisfies all conditions of release. Since parole can last years (on top of time already spent in prison), many convicts may not actually be able to petition for expungement for much longer than the ten years spelled out in the statute.
At least one of the original goals of A206 appears to have been to reduce the length of the expungement time disqualifier. At various points during A206’s trudge through the New Jersey Legislature, shorter intervals were considered, including one as low as five years. Unfortunately, as signed by Gov. Christie, the law still contains a ten-year time bar for applications to expunge criminal convictions. The final version of the bill makes few (albeit welcome) meaningful statutory changes, including automatic expungement of arrest records for criminal charges not resulting in conviction, and a new, shorter three-year “public interest” waiting period for disorderly persons convictions.
While A206 is certainly a step in the right direction, in my view it is a missed opportunity. The United States consistently ranks at or near the top of the world in terms of its rate of incarcerated citizens. And once those people are released from prison — and told they have discharged their debt to society — their punishment does not end. Instead, they often spend many years, and sometimes the rest of their lives, unable to drive, find employment, or exercise many rights we take for granted.
This situation may be satisfying in a primal, eye-for-an-eye sort of way, but ultimately it is self-defeating. If we release convicts back into the world and discourage them from becoming gainfully-employed, law-abiding citizens, how surprised can we really be when they become recidivists? Shouldn’t our goal be less to punish them indefinitely, and more to get them on the right path so we don’t have to waste society’s resources incarcerating them again? In my mind, the answer to those questions is obvious. Thus shortening the waiting period for expungements, the best tool available to help convicts actually move on with their lives, is not only morally right, it makes good legal and practical sense as well.
Here’s hoping the next time the Legislature takes a crack at expungements, they do it right. Withholding a second chance from a deserving person ultimately accomplishes little, but costs us all dearly.
Obligatory plug: my firm, which is helmed by more than a dozen former prosecutors, handles quite a few expungement petitions for our clients, usually with good outcomes. If you are interested, get in touch through our firm’s website, or give us a call at (856) 547–7888.
