Several states, including New York State, have recently passed Clean Slate laws. For those states who have Clean Slate laws in place, we are interested in learning about how your archival institution is or will be managing access to criminal conviction records in your holdings. Specifically:
- Does your state's law have a limited time period for retrospective sealing or expungement of criminal conviction records? If so, what is the cutoff date or number of years?
- What activity does the law prescribe for selected conviction records: sealing, expunging (deletion), erasing, or other?
- Do you manage in your archival holdings:
- records of incarcerated individuals, such as prison case files?
- criminal court records?
- clemency/pardon records?
- Attorney General prosecution records?
- State Police arrest records?
- Does/will the law affect access by researchers to any of the records noted above and, if so, how?
- Does/will the law cause agencies to halt transfers of such records? Has/will such records be destroyed?
- Have you developed new guidance for agencies on retention or transfer to accommodate the legislation?
- Does the law allow researchers access to sealed conviction records?
Is there interest in having a Zoom discussion of the impact of Clean Slate laws on access to archival conviction records? I am willing to set up a meeting and take notes.
Monica
New York State Archives
Director, Archival Services
(518) 473-7339
------------------------------
Monica Gray
monica.gray@nysed.gov------------------------------