CBS 21 News: Proposed legislation to expand PA's Clean Slate Law would give more a second chance

In The News
Written By Diana Rademacher

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday to discuss expansion of Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate Law. The state was the first in the nation to pass the Clean Slate Law in 2018, helping more than 1.2 million of its residents with misdemeanors.

“How can we give folks a real second chance when they have shown that they’ve changed and turned their lives around?” Rep. Jordan Harris (D) said. “When you have folks on the left and on the right agreeing on this type of policy, it means that we are doing the right thing.”

But now lawmakers are announcing new bipartisan legislation to expand it, looking to seal the records of those with low-level, nonviolent felonies to incentivize those with criminal records to remain crime-free.

“This is not a Republican issue, this is not a Democrat issue,” Rep. Sheryl Delozier (R) added. “This is a people issue, this is a jobs issue.”

Read more at CBS 21

Diana Rademacher
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The Center Square: Clean Slate expansion could include sealing low-level felony records