Connecticut program to expunge records faces some delays

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Most eligible Connecticut residents with certain cannabis possession convictions — roughly 44,000 cases — should have their records automatically erased within 60 days, or about a month longer than expected under a state law taking effect Jan. 1, Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday.

The Democratic governor also acknowledged it should take about six to eight months longer to process petitions to have other drug-related crimes erased, noting how that part of the state’s “Clean Slate” law is more complicated and requires the creation of a new database. Based on preliminary estimates, hundreds of thousands of convictions are expected to be erased once the law is fully implemented.

“The vast majority of folks can have their marijuana-related convictions — which is the vast majority of the convictions — cleaned over the course of the next 60 days,” Lamont told reporters following an unrelated state Capitol news conference. “This has been sort of something that’s been discussed for the last 20 years. We got it passed in the last year and we’re going to make sure that this is properly and appropriately and safely implemented.”

The Clean Slate provisions were included in a 2021 state law that legalized the recreational use of cannabis. The goal was to help those communities and individuals disproportionately harmed by the nation’s war on drugs.

Retail sales of marijuana in Connecticut are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2023.

Advocates, however, voiced concern Wednesday about anticipated delays in criminal record expungements. They predicted many people would be disappointed after waiting for years to rid their records of old criminal convictions that made it difficult for them to find housing and employment. During a news conference in New Haven on Wednesday, they urged the Lamont administration to redouble efforts to finish the promised expungements as soon as possible.

“Many people with records have a healthy distrust of state government already. But if they keep this up, then that’s only going to make it worse,” warned Rodney Moore, a co-chair of the Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut, or CONECT, criminal legal reform team. He estimated as many as 300,000 could be impacted.

Democratic state Sen. Gary Winfield of New Haven, and Rep. Steve Stafstrom of Bridgeport, co-chairs of the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, said they understood it is a complicated process to review so many records and believe the delay is legitimate. However, they stressed the importance of helping people who made a mistake decades ago.

“We can’t hold them to who they were in a moment in their lives,” Winfield said. “We can look at who they are and move forward.”

Under the law, convictions for possession of under four ounces of marijuana imposed between Jan. 1, 2000 and Sept. 30, 2015 would automatically be erased on Jan. 1. Those affected don’t need to take any action to have their conviction expunged, allowing them to tell employers, landlords and schools the conviction never occurred.

The law also allows people to file a petition in Superior Court to have certain violations erased. The list includes convictions for possession of less than or equal to four ounces of a cannabis-type substance, imposed before Jan, 1, 2000, and between Oct. 1, 2015, and June 30, 2021.

It also includes convictions for possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia for cannabis, imposed before July 1, 2021; convictions imposed before July 1, 2021, for manufacturing, selling, possessing with intent to sell, or giving or administering to another person a cannabis-type substance. The amount must be less than four ounces or six plants grown inside a person’s home for personal use.

Republican Rep. Craig Fishbein of Wallingford, the top House Republican on the Judiciary Committee, called for public hearings in the new legislative session to hear the concerns of state agencies about the criminal expungement law. He characterize the law as “poorly crafted” and said it had no plan for implementation. The General Assembly convenes Jan. 4.

“These highly technical issues are too important to leave solely to interpretations between committee chairs and judicial branch staff and must be addressed by the full legislature,” Fishbein said in a statement. “There should be no ambiguity when it comes to a person’s freedom and the state’s ability to restrict their rights.”