More juvenile offenders can get their criminal records expunged under a bill that received rare unanimous agreement in the Michigan legislature, reports the Detroit Free Press. The law allows juvenile offenders to request that their records be cleared if they have three or fewer misdemeanors or one felony conviction. Prior rules allowed for the request on only one misdemeanor.
Offenders also will be able to ask that their records be cleared one year after they’ve completed their sentence and probation, instead of the five years in current rules. If they committed a crime that would be punishable by life in prison in the adult court system, they aren’t eligible to get their record cleared. “Everyone is so gun-shy on this because they think we need to be tough on crime, and it’s politically correct to be tough on crime,” said the law’s sponsor, Rep. Joe Haveman said. “But we can certainly look at alternatives if people are behaving themselves. And then they can be paying taxes instead of draining taxes.”