Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Chair Edwards, Chair Day, and Members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.1114: An Act requiring clean slate automated record sealing and S.1124: An Act to Remove Collateral Consequences and Protect the Presumption of Innocence.

We commend the past efforts from this body to create a fairer criminal record sealing system. However, the system has not been able to reach its full potential. As it exists, the system is burdensome and often prohibitive for applicants, with unnecessary barriers for all and even worse barriers for those with English as a second language or reading difficulties.

When people finally mail or deliver an application to have their records sealed, they have waited the period of time the Commonwealth established. However, due to the backlogs in the system, they are denied opportunities even longer. Backlogs can be regularly 3 to 4 months. No one benefits from such unwieldy administrative burdens. Moreover, the complex nature of the system can lead people to not even know they were eligible for record sealing until after they lose the prospect for a job, housing, or other opportunities.

This administrative burden similarly applies to cases where an offense is dismissed, as an individual needs an additional hearing before the record can be sealed.

All of this exacerbates the already wide racial and economic inequality in this Commonwealth, and it hurts the vital work of reentry and re-integration into community.

Fortunately, the solution is right before us: we can automate this process. People may not know when they are eligible for record sealing, but the Commonwealth does. If the Commonwealth has established that a record is now eligible to be sealed, that record should be sealed—taking the onus away from the individual.

We have heard a lot about “government efficiency” over the past few months. So often, those words are simply code for efforts to destroy valuable programs. But this bill is exactly what government efficiency *should* mean: it should mean making our systems work for people. Interfacing with government should be seamless, and interactions should boost faith in government action.

Other states have already realized this. Our neighbors in Connecticut and New York; fellow Democratic trifecta states like California, Colorado, Delaware, and Minnesota; and even more “moderate” or “conservative” states like Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia have successfully adopted automatic record clearing, to great success. Let’s join them.

In addition, we also urge support for H.2052/S.1178: An Act to reduce mass incarceration, which would end the practice of life without parole. Like the Clean Slate bill, this is about creating second chances. Eliminating the opportunity for parole bloats our prison populations, and it keeps people behind bars who, decades out from a criminal offense, pose no risk to the community anymore. Massachusetts talks about how our correctional facilities serve the goal of “rehabilitation,” and eliminating the opportunity to go before a parole board to make the case for release undermines that stated goal.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts