On IP44

My clients have had hard lives, harder than I can imagine or really be able to sympathize with. It usually begins with significant childhood trauma, in which they were completely innocent; which evolves into heavy drug use in young adulthood, in which the lines of innocence are blurred; which evolves into a lifestyle which involves desperate schemes for money, searches for comfort, and, ultimately, court systems and prison, in which the innocence and victim status is legally removed. Some people talk about prison like I imagine it - hell. Some people talk about it like they were Nelson Mandela, that they really were able to become themselves there.

Across these different narratives there is one constant: criminal justice system involvement is permanent. There is, of course, the trauma, which is permanent. There is also the collateral consequences, which are unintentionally permanent. No party involved in the sentencing of a first-time meth possessor to probation - I think - is aware of this permanence. They may be aware that, under the law, that first time offender can have their records sealed under certain circumstances. But more than 90% of the time, people with eligible records are not able to obtain the forms of relief they are entitled to. And this is because those forms of relief - record expungement being chief among them - are placed behind so many bureaucratic and financial barriers. What’s left is the permanent self-image of Felon.

That’s why we need IP44 to pass.