On July 1, Virginia’s Clean Slate Law sealed criminal records for many Virginians, substantially impacting the Commonwealth’s future and its justice system.
Supporters of the law argue that it will allow eligible Virginians to access new opportunities, such as employment, housing, and higher education, while opponents say that it is a convenience for the convicted.
George Townsend, an attorney who has represented thousands of Virginians with criminal charges in state and federal courts, founded Clean Slate Virginia to guide people through the record-sealing process.
Townsend said that there are two major components of the law. One is automatic sealing, in which misdemeanor offenses are sealed if the person goes seven years without another criminal conviction. The other main component of the law is record sealing by petition, in which all other misdemeanors and low-level felonies that can be sealed must be petitioned to the circuit court by the person, with a judge authorizing the sealing. For lower-level felonies, Townsend explained that you have to go 10 years without another criminal conviction for them to be sealed by petition.
“I don’t think we can overestimate how impactful these laws will be for people in helping them with employment and in housing,” said Townsend. “Indeed, with sealed convictions, the Clean Slate Law will no longer impede Virginians with “barrier crimes.”
Townsend said that the Clean Slate Law has had bipartisan support and that similar laws are popular across the country.
“They let low-level nonviolent offenses be sealed after a certain amount of time to help people with employment and housing,” he said.
“We shouldn't be having people have to answer to what was criminal in the past, so Virginia and all forms of marijuana charges will be automatically sealed,” said Townsend, speaking on the sealing of civil and criminal marijuana charges.
“This is a country of second chances, and if people earn that second chance, they deserve it,” Townsend said. “Most people across the country, I think, are in support of punishment, but they’re not in support of punishment for the person for the rest of the person’s life.”
He also clarified that the design behind the law is not such that police, prosecutors, probation officers, and judges cannot see the conviction if needed. Townsend said that the law balances community safety with the ability for people to support themselves and their families by providing access to housing, jobs, and educational opportunities.
Former Attorney General Jason Miyares, however, is staunchly opposed to the law. He said that the law is fundamentally designed around the “convenience of the convicted, not the safety of Virginians.” Miyares said that victims don’t get to seal what happened to them. He also said that the law is actually giving a criminal defendant more rights than a victim has.
Miyares said that when a record is hidden from employers or landlords, they lose the ability to make informed decisions. He argued that the law runs counter to the “voice of victims.”
Although Townsend claimed that the law is the result of a bipartisan effort, Miyares argued that the “law is an extremely left-wing approach to criminal justice.” “History has shown that these types of policies inevitably don't work,” he continued.
“But again, does the victim get their record clean?” Miyares reiterated. “People need to be accountable for their actions, and communities need to protect themselves.”
He said the law might seem compassionate, but it comes at the expense of victims.
Countering Townsend’s stance that the Clean Slate Law would create access to employment, Miyares said, “I reject that categorically, because if you talk to those in the market, they're looking for employees.” He said that employers will “absolutely overlook this,” adding that “on many accounts, employers will see that person served their debt, that they're “sober,” and that they're “ready to come and start a second chapter of their life.”
“We've seen a lot of really, maybe well-intentioned bills, but it ends up doing the opposite of what they desire or actually creates more problems than the problems they were trying to fix. I have a feeling this might be one of those bills,” said Miyares.
Miyares argued that similar legislation has been tried and has failed in the past.
“Between 1992 and 2018, the crime rate in Virginia plummeted by drastic numbers. And they say the only thing you learn from history is that nobody learns from history. There are a lot of policies being advanced now that have been tried before and failed, but people haven't studied history, and they're trying to advance it again. I would argue that almost every single new, quote-unquote, progressive reform being advanced right now in the criminal justice system has already been tried. It was tried in the 1970s and led to a crime explosion,” he said.
“People have forgotten what started in the early 90s; we started getting serious about making sure that the small subset of repeat offenders was held accountable, and crime plummeted and people forgot that,” said Miyares.
Townsend and Miyares, although diametrically opposed in their stances, both would agree that the Clean Slate Law will alter the future of the Commonwealth and its criminal justice system, for better or worse.