by Suzanne Potter
California News Service
One year ago, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 731, a law that allows more than a million Californians to clear many old felony convictions from their records. Now, expungement clinics across the state are helping speed that process along. A clinic this Friday in San Francisco will help people start the paperwork to petition a judge.
Will Matthews, is spokesperson for the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice, which is co-sponsoring the event.
“If you’re a registered sex-offense offender, you’re ineligible,” he said. “But almost every other condition is eligible now to be sealed, as long as you have gone two years without any further contact with the justice system after fully completing your sentence.”
Old convictions have thousands of consequences and can prevent people from renting an apartment, getting a job, applying for certain professional licenses, attending a child’s field trip, and much more. Many legal aid groups offer help with record sealing, including the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Area Regional Re-entry Partnership, and Inland Counties Legal Services.
Saun Hough, partnerships manager with Californians for Safety and Justice, said helping people move on with their lives is a matter of public safety.
“So any time you have a population that is being locked out from the opportunity for economic empowerment, or from housing, or from pursuing the career of their choice, then what you’re going to see is this destabilization of communities,” Hough said.
The so-called Clean Slate law also allows the California Department of Justice to automatically seal certain arrests and misdemeanor and non-violent felonies.
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Anti-Hunger Advocates Oppose Limits on Food Benefits in Farm Bill
Anti-hunger groups are calling on Congress to protect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – as negotiations continue on the massive 2023 farm bill, due this fall.
SNAP, known in California as Cal Fresh, provides an average benefit of $6 per person per day. Luis Guardia – president of the Food Research and Action Center – said he wants SNAP benefits to be higher, and more accessible.
“We can achieve this in the program,” said Guardia, “by linking benefits to a more realistic food plan, ending time limits for the unemployed, repealing the ban on individuals with a drug felony, dropping extra work requirements for full-time college students, and ending the prohibition on hot prepared foods.”
Conservative Republicans are expected to call to restrict access to the program, which serves 12 percent of Americans – 4.6 million people in California alone.
The chair of the House Agriculture Committee, Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson – R-Howard – has called for “reconsideration” of money allocated in the Inflation Reduction Act to climate-friendly agricultural programs.
Mike Lavender, policy director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said the farm bill is an opportunity to put our values into practice.
“We’re here to urge house farm bill leaders to deliver a solid bipartisan farm bill,” said Lavender, “one that protects and strengthens anti-hunger and climate spending programs, and then includes worker protections.”
Advocates would like to see the Farm Bill include national rules to require water and rest breaks for farm workers.
