LANSING, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – Once someone has paid a debt to society, such a payment shouldn’t be a “scarlet letter” for the rest of a transgressor’s life, according to some state lawmakers.
That’s the intent behind a six-bill package unveiled yesterday by a bipartisan group of state House Representatives during public appearances in Detroit and Kalamazoo. It would revise current expungement laws to expand the number of people who qualify, establish automatic expungement for certain offenders, allow for the expungement of marijuana convictions, allow forgiveness for acts committed during the proverbial “one bad night,” allow for the expungement of some traffic offenses not connected with drunken driving or causing serious injury/death, and shorten the eligibility period for expungement.
“For me, it comes down to criminal justice reform,” freshman Republican lawmaker Luke Meerman of Coopersville, one of the package’s sponsors, explained. “It’s about, ‘How do we get people, individuals back on their feet as quickly as possible after they’ve made the wrong decisions in their past?’”
The package will be formally introduced in the state House this week.
