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A FRESH START: Roughly 1,900 crimes are eligible for expungement, which legal officials say can open employment opportunities for those with a criminal record.
Heather Mosley | SBJ
A FRESH START: Roughly 1,900 crimes are eligible for expungement, which legal officials say can open employment opportunities for those with a criminal record.

Another Chance: Local officials hope more Clean Slate clinics will boost low expungement applications

Posted online

Roughly four years after a state law was enacted to help some people get their criminal records cleared, Greene County legal officials say the local results are falling short of expectations.

Nate Dunville, an attorney with Neale & Newman LLP and president of the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association, said around 1,900 crimes, which he describes as “mostly low-level, nonviolent offenses,” are eligible for expungement. That’s up from 1,300 identified when the state law passed in 2018. Senate Bill 61 was signed into law last year. It increased the eligible crimes and reduced the time those seeking expungement must wait to file a petition.

“It significantly reduced the amount of time you have to go before you can apply for an expungement,” Dunville said, noting the wait is now three years for a felony, down from seven years, while misdemeanors dropped to one year from three.

“As the expungements started going through, people realized setting that long of a time limit wasn’t beneficial to anybody and it was inhibiting the effectiveness of the bill,” he said. “So, they reduced the time limits down even further to ensure there was opportunity for people to take advantage of it.”

Low number
However, Dunville and Crista Hogan, the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association’s executive director, both are perplexed more people aren’t pursuing the opportunity to clear their criminal records.

“Frankly, we have been pretty disappointed in the number of people who are taking advantage of the availability of expungements,” Dunville said, adding he believes tens of thousands, if not more, are eligible in the state to have crimes expunged.

There are nearly 80 million Americans with a criminal record, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The BJS reported roughly 23,000 were in Missouri state or federal prisons in 2020, according to its most recent data.

Hogan said she recently requested and received expungement numbers from Greene County. Since 2018, she said only 216 expungement petitions have been filed and 210 were granted.

“People are not getting it done. The process is breaking down somehow,” she said, noting one of the barriers may be the $250 charge to file an expungement petition.

The judge may waive the surcharge if the petitioner is indigent and unable to pay the cost, according to The Missouri Bar.

“There are different numbers hanging out there,” Dunville said of expungements granted statewide. “It’s hard as a state because the numbers aren’t all totaled up. It’s mostly done county by county.”

Hogan said she hopes additional Clean Slate clinics held by the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Foundation and Legal Services of Southern Missouri can bring more attention – and action – from those eligible for expungement. The no-cost clinic helps low-income individuals with prior convictions learn about the expungement process.

She said 10 Clean Slate clinics have been held since debuting in 2019. Several of those were virtual in 2020 and 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic. In-person clinics returned in August, Dunville said, adding 120 registered for the event at the Springfield Dream Center. Another clinic is set for Oct. 26 at National Avenue Christian Church.

“We’re already completely booked full for the clinic on Oct. 26 with 175 registrants,” Dunville said. “So, we’re having another clinic in November.”

All clinics require advanced registration via the Springfield Metropolitan Bar’s website, he said, adding the location for the Nov. 16 event is yet to be determined.

Making a difference
Mark Fels, senior attorney with Legal Services of Southern Missouri, said his organization, which serves 43 counties, has participated in the Clean Slate clinics since the beginning. Legal Services will pay expungement filing fees for those who qualify in its service area.

“For those who are eligible, that’s a big help on an expungement,” Fels said. “The basic idea behind the expungement law is the fresh start concept. You have people who are held back in trying to find a job or other things by criminal offenses on their record.

“A lot of people in our service constituency, the economically disadvantaged, find themselves held back by those kind of things. That’s why it’s part of our mission to provide the services.”

Fels offices out of the Missouri Job Center and occasionally gets referrals from its staff when prospective job seekers come in with questions about their past legal issues.

Jennifer Biri, Missouri Job Center business services representative, said Fels also has accompanied staff to speak about expungement with inmates at the Ozark Correctional Center in Fordland. The visits are part of Springfield’s About Persons with Past Legal Issues in Employment program. The APPLIE program includes training for inmates across the region on online job applications, resume development and mock interviews, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

Biri acknowledged she only recently heard about the Clean Slate clinic but said it would be of interest for participants of the APPLIE program. Roughly 100 inmates are in the program, up from around 30 in May, she said.

“We’re working in nine prisons right now across the state of Missouri,” she said, noting participating facilities include Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City, Chillicothe Correctional Institution and South Central Correctional Center in Licking. “We’ve been making lots of trips trying to get folks enrolled that are coming back to our area.”

Participants must be no more than 180 days away from being released from prison and will be living in the Missouri Job Center’s service region, which covers Greene, Christian, Dallas, Polk, Stone, Taney and Webster counties.

Part of the program includes discussion of the participant’s criminal history and how to discuss it with an employer.

“A lot of times what we see is when they’re interviewing with an employer, it’s almost like it’s the first thing on their mind and they’ve got to get it off their chest,” she said. “We talk with them about how to wait for that question to be asked and how to discuss it.”

Removing barriers
Hogan said part of her work entails how to increase access to expungement for those who are eligible.

“There are tens of thousands of people who made a mistake when they were younger and have been upstanding citizens for decades and just want to be in the game,” she said.

Dunville said it’s apparent by the low number of expungements that barriers still exist. Identifying them is going to be “an evolving process,” he said.

“They still either aren’t able or aren’t willing to go through the process to get it done,” he said. “If we as a society and community reap the benefits of bringing these people back into the workforce, bringing them into the housing market and making education available, then we’re going to work to make sure we’re removing those barriers.”

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