To Boost Hiring, New York Makes Case for a ‘Clean Slate’
For many Americans, criminal records stand as stubborn barriers to employment and housing. Several states are now advancing efforts to automatically seal and expunge those records.
New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn has sponsored a bill to automatically seal and expunge many criminal records after a waiting period.
Photographer: Scott Heins/Getty Images North AmericaYears ago, when Tony Bibbs was looking for landscaping work in Rochester, New York, he put in applications at dozens of small operations, always writing “will discuss in an interview” in response to the question about having a criminal record. Between the ages of 17 and 32, he was, he said, “running in and out of jail” on various charges of robbery and burglary. He was released for the last time in 1991. After being turned away for employment again and again, he passed out landscaper-for-hire flyers at local churches to advertise his services. Bibbs, now 63, has been cobbling together a livelihood from odd jobs ever since. Without a regular employer, he doesn’t have savings or an opportunity to retire.
“I was young, I was wild. I wasn’t thinking about the future,” says Bibbs, who does advocacy work with the Center for Community Alternatives, a nonprofit that supports people impacted by the prison system. “I did do my time, I did do the probations and paroles and all the things. I just feel that once I completed them, I gave you all what you wanted from me, then you all need to at least give me an opportunity to have it better in life. Right now, I’m digging holes to make a living.”