The Daily Mining Gazette posted an article bringing to light how much a person’s past can affect their present day lives, no matter the time period. Past mistakes for people, including criminal records, still affect the lives of many. No matter how long it has been since their criminal acts, they are unable to move on from them because they pop up everywhere. Criminal records are a constant reminder of people’s past mistakes. Many serve their sentences and pay their fines trying to move on from young mistakes. However, they are unable to because they have to share their criminal records for job interviews or education facilities.
The Michigan House realized this and therefore fought for their bipartisan expungement reform plan to be approved by the Michigan House. This plan would give “hundreds of thousands of residents with old, low-level criminal convictions the ability to start fresh. It would also shorten the period people must wait before their records can be set aside and establish an automatic expungement system for certain types of offenses”. This provides people a chance to not be haunted by their past. Their past criminal record will not be able to hold them back any further than it already has.
This will also increase public safety as former convicts will be able to obtain better jobs from not having this barrier. It will keep them off the streets and able to provide for themselves and their families, reducing recidivism and crime. Increasing the number of people eligible for jobs will help the job market and companies looking to hire, knowing they have more options. The expansion of the expungement will provide new opportunities to deserving people and work to strengthen and build communities.