Lead contributor in support of Senator Roderick Wright’s bill, Attorney Mathew Higbee, is working towards expanding benefits for California’s current expungement law. Expected to be approved by the committee, SB 530 will provide greater benefits to former offenders.

Higbee is pushing towards enhancing the opportunities for former offenders through the variety of programs created to assist former offenders that are already in place in California.

Higbee said, “In many ways, California is very progressive and innovative when it comes to helping former offenders. We provide drug treatment, continuing education, job training and even tattoo removal. But California does not remove the one thing that many other states do, and that is the label of criminal. California’s law governing expungement and other post-conviction remedies are inadequate, as a result, all of those investments in rehabilitation and training are marginalized— leading to unnecessary unemployment, under-employment, and waste of human capital.”

SB 530 expands the eligibility for the certificate of rehabilitation, while codifying a regulation that stops employers from discriminating against people who have expunged their conviction.

“I am expecting the bill to create a new legal remedy that will allow some offenders to have convictions removed from their Department of Justice report, commonly know as a Live Scan report,” said Higbee.

Written by dkim

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