Formerly incarcerated New Yorkers rejoiced last week as a key bill that would automatically wipe old conviction records for certain offenses was finally signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul. The driving forces behind the bill were passionate electeds and those deeply affected by the criminal legal system.
Melinda Agnew, a member of Center for Community Alternatives (CCA) and a formerly incarcerated person, was sentenced to three years’ probation in October of 1999. She is currently a single mom of three and a caretaker for her elderly mother. “Since then, I have become a mom and a grandma, returned to school, obtained both my bachelor’s degree and my master’s,” began Agnew.
Agnew’s family has suffered greatly from her lack of access to jobs for the last 25 years. She’s been denied promotions and rejected from housing programs. She believes in the end of “perpetual punishment” for other Black and brown formerly incarcerated people.
“With courage and vulnerability, we have come together to share our stories,” said Agnew. “We have chanted side by side at rallies in the freezing cold and sweltering heat. We have taken precious time off of work and away from families to file into buses at dawn. We have stood row after row on marble steps at our capitol and raised our voices to shout ‘Clean Slate, Can’t Wait.’”
People with old convictions face harsh systemic barriers to housing, education, and jobs—an issue that disproportionately affects Black and brown New Yorkers. The Clean Slate Act is projected to boost the state’s economy by $12.6 billion; be an effective tool to reduce recidivism; and is widely lauded by hundreds of labor unions, businesses, and civil rights groups.
The signing of Clean Slate drew a huge crowd of supporters and electeds, including hip hop figure La La Anthony, Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Judge Marva Brown; and Assemblymembers Clyde Vanel, Brian Cunningham, Jo Anne Simon, and Stefani Zinerman. Councilmember Yusef Salaam, one of the only formerly incarcerated members on the City Council, attended the signing with his wife. Salaam was excited to see the bill pass and for people with similar backgrounds who have already paid their debt to society to have “a real chance at a future.”
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Bill sponsors Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz have championed Clean Slate for the past few years. It finally passed in the Senate and Assembly in 2023. Both were visibly moved at the signing.
“Most importantly, I want to thank the impacted New Yorkers, the people who have lived with conviction records all this time. I want to thank you for your determination, your persistence,” said Myrie. “Every single call, every email, every trip up to Albany, every lobbying effort. You are the ones who got this done.”
Cruz added: “To the naysayers, I want to say, please stop using survivors as a shield, because if we have the opportunity to forgive those who have wronged us, if they show us they deserve a second chance, I can tell that we need to do that.”
Among those present was Brooklyn native Lukee Forbes, 29, who was incarcerated at the age of 15, spent seven years in prison, and is now executive director of We Are Revolutionary, one of the nonprofits supporting the law. He said Clean Slate helps break a punitive system.
His father had been killed in his native country of Panama when he was a child and his mother had been battling cancer and a HIV/AIDS diagnosis. He moved from Brooklyn to Albany as a teen to live with her. Even though he was gifted academically, he said the stress of the situation often led him to skip school and run away. He was placed on probation, which he continued to violate by running away and hiding at friends’ houses. One group of his friends ended up robbing someone while he was with them, he said, and he was convicted for assault. His friends testified that Forbes didn’t hit the victim, but he ended up pleading out to a sentence.
“They wanted me to do as much time as possible. It was more about punishment than looking at the actual case,” said Forbes. When he was released, he experienced homelessness because both of his parents were deceased. He struggled in jobs until eventually attending the New School for multimedia and diving head first into advocacy work. He’s also received therapy and counseling, and has integrated trauma care into his nonprofit organization.
“I kinda made a route for me [through advocacy] after seeing that I was just getting stuck in low-end positions at fast-food places,” said Forbes.
Forbes believes that as a young Black boy, he was discriminated against harshly, with his youthful offender status denied, and was subjected to “legal segregation” after his release.
Khari Edwards, who served as the first vice president of color for external affairs at Brookdale Hospital and ran for Brooklyn Borough president in 2021, was one of the financial backers of the Clean Slate campaign and was at the signing. He concurred that old convictions are like “paper handcuffs,” especially for young Black children who often know or have family who are justice-involved.
“If you give a mom a job and enough to pay for childcare and groceries, then you’re less likely to have a child [who] goes out and gets involved in that justice-impacted world,” said Edwards, who now works for a cannabis investment group called Ayr Wellness. “There’s a reality that we don’t look at these building blocks as to why someone is selling or joins a gang. It becomes a vicious cycle [and] giving someone an opportunity can cut those paper handcuffs. Now they don’t have to go to that side to survive. It’s really about survival.”
In her speech, Hochul admitted that the state is behind in passing the law because of a lingering fear of incarcerated or formerly incarcerated people. New York became the 12th state to have a Clean Slate law, joining states like Utah, South Dakota, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“Other states have done this,” said Hochul, “and to those that want to weaponize this as a political issue, I just need to point to deep red states like Oklahoma, South Dakota, Missouri. They’re way ahead of us on this and they’re showing you it works…the evidence is there: Give people jobs, they don’t commit crimes. Crime rates go down. It’s common sense, people.”
In Michigan, a Harvard Law Review study found that within two years of clearing conviction records, people were 11% more likely to have a job, were earning 25% more, and were less likely than members of the general public to be convicted of a crime.
Resolutions in support of the law have passed in 15 cities and counties across the state, including New York City, Buffalo, Westchester, Albany City & County, Syracuse, Ulster County, Columbia County, Newburgh, Hudson, Ellenville, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Catskill, and Schenectady.
This version of the Clean Slate law (S.7551A/A.1029C) allows criminal records to be sealed years after an individual is sentenced or released as long as they complete probation and haven’t committed another crime. Records of individuals with eligible misdemeanor convictions will be sealed after three years and for those with certain felony convictions, after eight years. Law enforcement will continue to have access to the records, but they won’t apply for housing or job applications.
The law carefully leaves out automatic sealing of convictions for sex offenders, those who have committed non–drug-related Class A felonies and/or murder, or domestic terrorists, nor will it apply to gun background checks, said Hochul.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.