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Libraries offer free criminal record expungement information Criminal records, sometimes decades ol
February 12, 2016 posted by Steve Brownstein
Criminal records, sometimes decades old, can be a barrier to employment, buying a house or even volunteering at a school. Area public libraries are offering information seminars for those interested in the expungement of court records for non-violent crimes.
These sessions take place the first Friday of the month at noon at Arlington Hills Public Library, the second Friday of the month at noon at Sun Ray Public Library, the third Friday of the month at noon at Rondo Community Outreach Library, and the second and fourth Thursday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Ramsey County Law Library. These information seminars are free and open to anyone.
The sessions are a collaboration between the Volunteer Lawyers Network (VLN) and Ramsey County Law Library, while the Ramsey County Law Library seminar is sponsored by the Ramsey County District Court.
The seminars inform people on the process of expungement, the forms needed, and can help connect those who qualify with representation if they are not comfortable representing themselves during the expungement process.
The expungement workshops were first held at the Ramsey County Law Library, in St. Paul City Hall. Leslie Greenwood, a librarian at the law library, then thought of expanding the workshops to public libraries.
"We are trying to build bridges with the local public libraries and see how we can help them in the delivery of legal information and how we might partner with them to also let people know of our existence, as well," said Greenwood.
Greenwood got in touch with Chris Hanrahan from VLN to see if the network would be interested in having information seminars at public libraries. They held their first seminar at the Rondo library about two years ago.
"Months after that I received emails from librarians at Arlington Hills and Sun Ray saying they were interested in putting together a similar workshop at their public libraries," Greenwood said, "so we knew that was a successful outreach at that point and so we were able to put those together as well."
Rebecca Ryan, a librarian at Sun Ray, said she had heard about the program when it first started at the Rondo library and wanted to bring it to hers.
"I knew we would have some people that would be interested in it," said Ryan, "The criminal record can be a barrier."
Hanrahan said he has noticed a substantial increase in the amount of people seeking expungement counseling since the outreach to the public libraries began.
VLN is a network of Minnesota lawyers who look to volunteer and offer their services for free to those in poverty.
The expungement counseling services start with the information seminars at the public libraries. If one felt they met the requirements in order to have a court records expunged, they would then go to the Ramsey County Law Library to meet with a VLN lawyer in a confidential counseling session.
Hanrahan points out that the expungement process they are counseling for is only for court records, and not arrest records.
He said that some examples of crimes that can be expunged include disorderly conduct, theft, low level assaults -- fights, but not armed assaults or assaults that cause significant injury -- trespassing and minor drug possession. He said there are very few felonies that qualify, but an example would be 5th degree drug possesion, and some thefts of $5,000 or less.
"Basically, any petty misdemeanor offense, misdemeanor, or gross misdemeanor can qualify for expungment," said Hanrahan.
"Most people come to us because they can't a job or housing because of their records and expungement of the records can prevent it from showing up on background checks," said Hanrahan.
Hanrahan also pointed out that the law has checks in place to make sure it is safe for someone to close their record.
"That makes sure that it's either a case that was dismissed or that you've shown that you've rehabilitated and that you've waited an appropriate amount of time to show that you've moved past the events," Hanrahan said.
According to their flyer, expungement is usually denied to those who are on probation or parole, those currently charged with a new crime, those who owe fines or fees to Ramsey County, or those who request expungement for a driving offense.
