Vic Bishop, Staff Writer
Waking Times
In the age of cannabis legalization, we have to reconcile the damage done by the war on this medicinal and enjoyable plant. In this effort, a growing number of cities and counties in cannabis legal states are advancing legislation to expunge the criminal records of people with certain marijuana related convictions. Even the federal government is showing signs of slowly getting on board with this, as Democrats recently introduced federal legislation that would legalize cannabis nationwide and erase possession charges.
The latest and largest metroplex to take on this issue is Los Angeles, where officials from two counties are putting plans in place to reverse over 54,000 prior convictions. Code for America, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the government to use technology in the service of the citizenry, will be employing an algorithm to quickly identify qualified beneficiaries and automatically remove their convictions.
A move like this will greatly improve the lives of thousands of people, as criminal convictions in California can have serious negative repercussions on day-to-day living, as noted by Code for America in the following Tweets.
2/ In California alone, there are 4,800 legal obstacles that exist for someone with a criminal record. Obstacles like the ability to get a job, access financial aid, get a loan, etc.
— Code for America (@codeforamerica) April 1, 2019
4/ Nearly every state in America has record clearance laws. But many people do not clear their criminal records because:
🔹they do not know they are eligible
🔹they do not know how to do so
🔹the cost is prohibitive
🔹it takes too much time— Code for America (@codeforamerica) April 1, 2019
6/ There are ~54,000 marijuana convictions eligible for automatic record clearance in Los Angeles & San Joaquin County by rethinking the record clearance process. This builds on Clear My Record’s success in SF with @DAGascon – 8,132 convictions cleared in SF county.
— Code for America (@codeforamerica) April 1, 2019
8/ We’re proud to work w/ these district attornies to remove barriers to employment, housing, health & education for thousands of people & demonstrate that our institutions can deliver on the promise voters intended when they passed Prop 64. #JusticeAtScale #SecondChanceMonth
— Code for America (@codeforamerica) April 1, 2019
The district attorneys from Las Angeles and San Joaquin counties held a press conference to talk about the initiative and how the process will work.
LIVE: Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey and San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar join our Founder and Executive Director, Jennifer Pahlka, to announce our partnership to automatically clear records & provide relief to thousands of individuals eligible under the law. Tune in now!
Posted by Code for America on Monday, April 1, 2019
About the Author
Vic Bishop is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com. He is an observer of people, animals, nature, and he loves to ponder the connection and relationship between them all. A believer in always striving to becoming self-sufficient and free from the matrix, please track him down on Facebook.
This article (More Than 50,000 Marijuana Convictions in Los Angeles Will Be Automatically Wiped Clean) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Vic Bishop and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio and internal links.
