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Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Ind. Law - Still more on: Indiana's new expungement law
From Tracy Warner's opinion column today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette on HEA 1211:
Many Hoosiers still likely have not grasped the implications of a new law that allows certain criminal records to be sealed.Here are two:
• The Indiana General Assembly has given job prospects permission to lie on applications.
• Courts will now have the equivalent of two sets of books regarding criminal convictions – one the public can see and one the criminal justice system can see.
And the worst part: These implications received little attention in the legislature’s debate on the issue.
The law allows people convicted of misdemeanors and the least-severe felonies, Class D, to petition for the convictions – and arrests – to be sealed from public view after eight years from the end of their sentence if they have a clean record since the conviction.
The law gives those affected permission to lie, stating: “The person may legally state on an application for employment or any other document that the person has not been arrested for or convicted of the felony or misdemeanor.”
This law means sheriff’s departments must alter jail records to indicate the convicted criminal was never there. Police must seal arrest records. County clerks will have to have separate court files for those convictions that will be hidden from the public. Information on the courts’ websites will have to be removed.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 28, 2011 09:27 AM
Posted to Indiana Law