The recently passed Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act provides a straightforward and essential roadmap for revitalizing our city and county: Open up economic opportunities to the people and communities whom their conviction history has affected. Thanks to this new law, more than 100,000 New Yorkers will have their previous marijuana convictions expunged, providing vital relief to those who routinely suffered discrimination and dashed opportunities.
 
We know that those with convictions struggle to find stable housing and jobs – years, even decades, after their involvement in the criminal legal system because of the stigma a conviction record carries. We also ignore the fact that many of these convictions result from an unjust legal system that has over-criminalized Black and brown New Yorkers for decades.

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Clean Slate is an example of a straightforward solution that can help us make significant progress. The ability to find a job leads to increased wages and decreased interaction with the criminal legal system – which is exactly what has occurred in other states that have implemented Clean Slate policies.

While New York passed a records-clearance law in 2017, its application-based process remains insufficient and too demanding. Case in point: less than 0.5% of eligible people have successfully had their records cleared in the past three years.
 
There is no legitimate reason to keep people in limbo when we know that automatic expungement has been proven to work.

Read the full article on the Buffalo News website here.