Courtesy of Expunge Colorado
Audio By Carbonatix
A Denver nonprofit has been sealing the deal on second chances for years. Now it needs more lawyers to help close the gap.
One in three Americans has a criminal record, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Since 2018, Expunge Colorado has been working to seal criminal records for nearly 300 people across the state, the only nonprofit dedicated to the service. But providing pro bono legal services has its drawbacks, pushing the group to raise awareness and issue a call to arms.
The Unite for Justice event will be held at the Michael Best & Friedrich law firm, 675 15th St., on June 11 for “attorneys, legal leaders and anyone who wants to stand alongside this work,” according to the website.
“This is just a way to uplift the legal community that wants to give back. Where are you?” asks Melanie Rose Rodgers, co-founder and executive director of Expunge Colorado. “It’s about finding other people who are passionate about this work, but attorneys in general, because that’s kind of my gap.”
What is record sealing?
Colorado law allows adults to seal records regarding certain crimes, barring them from public view. This isn’t the same as expungement, which involves deleting all data regarding a conviction and is usually reserved for minors — but record sealing still keeps a criminal case from the eyes of landlords or potential employers.
Some crimes cannot be sealed, including those involving acts of violence, sex offenses or incidents involving underage victims. In most cases, a person can also not have new convictions. On the other hand, a lot of cases (even felonies) can be zipped up.
In Colorado, approximately 1.3 million people are eligible for record sealing, according to Colorado’s Clean Slate Act passed in 2022. However, many people are either unaware of that option or the barrier of entry is too high.
Under the Clean Slate Act, petty offenses and some misdemeanors are automatically sealed after a predetermined number of years, but manually sealing a personal record can be confusing and expensive.
“It can be, like, $3,000 or more that nobody has lying around. These are people who have had a record, so they don’t have high-paying jobs to begin with,” Rose Rodgers says.
J.S., who had his record sealed with Expunge Colorado and asks to remain anonymous, had convictions for mischief, false reporting and other charges strung out between multiple municipalities in the metro, making the process even more difficult. After completing his probation, no one told him where to go.
“There wasn’t any transition plan. It was just, like, ‘Good luck. Hope we don’t see you again,'” he says.
Along with the steep price point and plethora of hoops to jump through, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation — the repository agency for criminal records in the state — is extremely backlogged, according to Rose Rodgers.
“It’s really complex, and so people just give up. Like, this whole system wasn’t intended to remove your record,” she says. “It is really mind-boggling, and there are other states that have technology that are able to seal records way faster. Utah has figured it out, Oregon, Michigan.”
And that’s the purpose of Expunge Colorado: providing people with the resources, including volunteer attorneys, to help navigate the barricaded wasteland of trying to seal a record.
Why is it important?
There are approximately 45,000 local laws and regulations in the country that create ramifications for having a criminal record, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. These can lead to limited housing, jobs and education.
“These ‘collateral consequences’ powerfully illustrate the excessively retributive nature of American criminal justice,” the Brennan Center wrote in an analysis. “From the inability to acquire a driver’s license (and thus, the inability to drive to work) to limits on access to college or even military service, they serve to remind people with criminal records of their permanent status as ‘other.'”
Rose Rodgers says that running the nonprofit has helped people get back on their feet and escape ghosts of their past. “It’s not just employment and housing, it’s just this restored sense of like they can live again,” she says. “We helped someone who was scared to get on the donor transplant list because of their criminal record.”
Issues surrounding criminal records are an intersection for so many things, according to Rose Rodgers. If someone can’t get a job due to their criminal record after serving time, they may not be able to land a job that could help them escape the life situations that got them arrested in the first place.
J.S. echoes the sentiment. After getting his records sealed, he has a new lease on life.
“When I got my felonies, I got a case of the ‘fuck-its’ hardcore. Why should I try for recovery? I ruined my whole life, so what’s the future for me?” he asks. But when his records were sealed, there was a “cement ceiling that had been crushing that had been removed.”
People with all of their records sealed have more incentive to stay away from crime, he argues.
“I could adopt kids if I wanted to. I could go back to school. I thought I was closed off from the world, but these grand ideas just fell in my lap,” he says.
Plus, in a world where ICE can target people for petty crime, having any legal help you can is crucial, according to Rose Rodgers.
“Look at who’s in office, look at ICE. Look at what we deal with every day,” she says. “Don’t tell me what’s legal or illegal.”
Expunge Colorado used to hold yearly clinics to help people learn about record sealing, but the organization had to scale back due to overwhelming demand and a lack of attorney time. There’s currently a waitlist of over 300 people looking for help.
While the organization still plans to hold events, it might morph into a community-led model, where people come in together and learn to fill out record-sealing paperwork as a group.
Expunge Colorado’s mixer and sign-up night for legal professionals will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 11, at Michael Best & Friedrich law firm at 675 15th St.
