Lawyers, former prosecutors and a lone ex-con who is a member of the Assembly had their say on the Clean Slate bill now up for passage into law. With some exceptions, Democrats liked the law while Republicans liked the concept but not the approach. From Staten Island to Orange County, lawmakers with legal backgrounds and non-legal backgrounds spoke about the impact this bill would have on so many ex-cons. As with any bill that takes on emotional aspects for personal reasons, stories were told on the floor during the Assembly debate that brought some lawmakers to tears.
Assemblyman Eddie Gibbs (D-East Harlem, Manhattan) was raised in public housing in East Harlem by a single mother. His family lived on welfare. As a teenager, Gibbs sold crack cocaine to support his family.
At 17 years old, Gibbs was stabbed in the leg in an attempted robbery. In an act of self-defense, Gibbs shot and killed his attacker before turning himself in at a local police station. He spent 17 months on Rikers Island before accepting a plea deal. He spent more than five years behind bars at three different state prisons – Elmira, Cayuga and Mid-State Correctional (located in Marcy, Oneida County). While at the Cayuga prison in the Finger Lakes region, Gibbs received his GED and associate’s degree from Cayuga Community College.
“I created my own clean slate, but there are millions of other individuals out there who would need to work for a Jewish criminal attorney [Bronx-based Murray Richman] like I did. He showed me trust. He showed me love. When a Jewish man gives a man who spent five and a half years in prison, keys to his house, keys to his vehicle, keys to his office, that made me feel like a human again. Giving me his keys to his home, office and vehicle – that one piece of trust, I’m not going to let this man down and I did not.”
With the assistance of Richman’s daughter Stacey, Gibbs also found a way to clear his name and have his records sealed, the result the Clean Slate Act will have for others.
“For the ten years I worked for this attorney, and by the third or fourth year his daughter, Stacey Richman, saw the need to file an application on my behalf titled Certificate of Good Conduct. If you asked me back then what was the Certificate of Good Conduct, I would have said I don’t know, some sort of paper. I was just happy to be home, working, and trusted. Stacey Richman told me about nine months later, ‘Mr. Gibbs, your life has been restored.’”
While Gibbs passed the exam to be a corrections officer with a score of better than 92 percent, state officials had a problem with Gibbs being allowed to carry a firearm since he had gone to prison for shooting and killing his assailant in self-defense. That’s when Gibbs threw up his hands in exasperation and withdrew his application to become a corrections officer.
Under the act passed by both houses of the Legislature, a misdemeanor will be sealed three years after probation has ended. Felonies are sealed eight years after probation ends. Every three months, four times a year, the state agency officials will interact to review the sealing of the records.
Many Republican lawmakers picked up on the example Gibbs laid out. If there is a system in place now that is working with judicial oversight included, why change what is already working?
“I think it’s a dangerous bill. It seals someone’s criminal history,” Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-Great Kills, Staten Island) told The Jewish Press. “When I was a prosecutor for eight years, I saw a lot of plea bargains happen in court where people pled guilty to lesser charges. In the alternative, if someone decided they were going to take their case to trial, they all did so with the understanding that the charge would appear on their permanent record. Even after taking a plea, if that person stayed out of trouble for a certain amount of time, they are free and are still free with today’s law to apply for a certificate of civil relief, which would, in actuality, take their circumstances to a judge and ask the judge to seal the conviction for whatever reason. That applies today.”
Tannousis cited other reasons why the bill is dangerous.
“There is no prior step of the person applying for the sealing,” Tannousis said. “If you come out of jail and you want to change your life around and you want to get a job and you take the proactive step of filing for the certificate, which is granted 99.9 percent of the time by judges who realize you’re trying to turn your life around, he’s not going to hold you back from doing that. How can we have something that is so automatic?
“For somebody to have their criminal conviction sealed, it would not require any type of proactive action on their part. It would automatically be sealed when time has elapsed, whether they were interested in changing their lives or not. I think that is not the proper way to go about this,” Tannousis concluded.
Liberal Democrats from Manhattan had a different take on the merits of the bill.
“I don’t think we should be judged for the rest of our lives on the lowest moments of our lives. I’ve made mistakes. Everyone I’ve known has made mistakes. Some mistakes are worse than others. Some mistakes have consequences. That doesn’t mean it should follow you for the rest of your life,” Assemblyman Harvey Epstein (D-East Village, Manhattan), an attorney, told The Jewish Press. “This is about letting people reintegrate back into society so they can get a job and opportunity. We want people to get really good jobs. Clean Slate allows people to do that. We’re not talking about jobs where children are involved. Those records could be looked at. In 90 percent of the jobs, the employer doesn’t need to know whether you’ve had a prior felony or a misdemeanor. Clean Slate wipes that all away.”
Epstein also sees this as a jobs bill.
“I was talking to my neighbor the other day. As a young kid he [did a foolish thing]. He was stealing cars. By the time he got to 24 years of age he kicked his drug habit. He had to start a painting business because he couldn’t get a regular job because of his record,” Epstein said. “For the past 30 years, he’s been an upstanding citizen. He still has these old convictions on his record from 35 years ago. There’s nothing we can do unless we pass the Clean Slate bill.”
Another liberal member of the Assembly spoke from a caring and coddling perspective of helping ex-cons.
“A person should not be judged by their worst mistake. When a person has committed a crime, has gone on to serve their time, paid their debt to society, what more do we want from them? We want them to go on to have a good life, to get housing, to get a good job, to have a family if they want, to be able to support them,” said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Upper West Side, Manhattan), who is not an attorney. “Yet, we hamstring them by having their record follow them everywhere they go. That ends with the passage of Clean Slate. This bill is essentially one of hope. Hope and redemption. Telling people in prison you do your time, you come out eight years later you can be free. It’s not easy to wait eight years plus the time served but this is a fair bill. This will help so many people in New York state get jobs, find decent and affordable housing, support their families, and it allows them to become productive members of society as they dreamt about in prison.”
A Rockland County member, who is a former prosecutor, gave the strongest arguments for defeating the bill as the sponsor, Catalina Cruz (D-Jackson Heights, Queens) scrambled for help from her legislative aide to answer the pointed questions thrust at her.
The record will be sealed for “violent felonies, including domestic violence offenses, endangering the welfare of a child. As a former special victims’ prosecutor, I really can’t get past that,” said Assemblyman John McGowan (D-Pearl River). “Endangering the welfare of a child is a class A misdemeanor. A person only acts in a manner likely to be injurious to the physical, mental, and moral well-being of a child less than 17 years old. That covers a lot of bad things that protect kids. But we’re going to seal it, wait your three years and it’s like it never happened. Our victims don’t get a second chance. Someone who is a robbery victim or a burglary victim will live with that for the rest of their lives. There is no clean slate for our victims. But our criminals. Sure, just don’t do it again.”
“In Jewish tradition, there is no such thing as perpetual punishment or permanent exile. As a people, we believe in the power and practice of teshuvah, the ability for each one of us to repent, atone and return with a “clean slate,” Hilly Haber, spiritual leader and director of social justice organizing and education at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan, wrote in a prepared statement. “Our criminal legal system today too often denies people the opportunity to fully return to their communities. Clean Slate has been carefully designed to help people come home from prison and flourish in the community. It creates a true pathway of teshuvah for New Yorkers who are coming home and a roadmap to a safe and healthy New York for all New Yorkers.” Haber also is a member of the New York Jewish Coalition on Criminal Justice Reform at the Jewish Community Relations Council in Manhattan.
“Clean Slate offers a genuine second chance to individuals who have fully paid their debt to society, enabling them to restart their lives and become positive contributors to their communities,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers, Westchester County) wrote in a prepared statement. “By passing Clean Slate, we affirm our belief in redemption and improve our society by providing formerly incarcerated individuals a better opportunity to enter the workforce and establish stable lives. This vital legislation will empower thousands of New Yorkers to forge a better future.”
“This bill … will provide a solution to the workforce issues many local businesses continue to face,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Eastchester, The Bronx) wrote in a prepared statement. “The Clean Slate Act will give millions of New Yorkers a second chance to do the right thing and give back to their community once again.”
[This bill] recognizes the economic, moral and public safety imperatives for passing Clean Slate,” said Senator Zellnor Myrie (D-Crown Heights, Brooklyn). “This legislation makes it clear that New Yorkers who have served their sentences and returned to the community owe no other debts before they can rebuild their lives, obtain housing and education, as well as secure gainful employment. Clean Slate means stronger, safer and more stable communities.”
“The passage of the Clean Slate Act is a major win for public safety, justice and fairness,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in a prepared statement. “New Yorkers who have criminal convictions can finally rebuild their lives and will no longer face a lifetime of perpetual punishment that locks them out of jobs, housing and education.”
The debate took place on Friday, June 9. The Assembly vote was 83 to 64 in favor.
The Senate vote was 37 to 25 in favor. Senator Simcha Felder (D – Borough Park / Midwood, Brooklyn) was excused from voting. He was the only one in the 63-member upper house not to cast a vote on the Clean Slate Act. Four Democrats voted against the measure.
The governor is expected to sign the measure into law.
