By Charlotte Rene Woods
After years of fine-tuning and preparation, a 2021 law allowing Virginians with certain past felony convictions to have their criminal records sealed will take effect July 1. Lawmakers and advocates say this will allow former felons without new convictions to expand their housing and employment options.
Under the “Clean Slate law,” when hiring managers and landlords run background checks on people whose criminal records have been sealed, they won’t be able to see some older convictions. It only applies if former felons don’t have new convictions within seven years of their petition date for certain misdemeanors and 10 years for certain felonies.
“We know that people age out of crime and nobody should have to live with their record forever,” said Sheba Williams, director of recidivism reduction organization Nolef Turns.
As someone who navigated hurdles from her past criminal record, Williams founded her organization to help people return to society after incarceration. She has helped craft numerous criminal justice reform laws over the years.
People with Class 1 or 2 felonies – typically violent crimes or charges that carry life sentences — aren’t eligible. And petitioners must not have been convicted of a Class 3 or 4 felony within 20 years.
Critically, Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax said, is that the law also effectively eliminates many barrier crimes. Should someone have a cocaine charge and be able to petition, for instance, they would no longer be prohibited from entering medical or security career fields.
Surovell, along with Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandra, had led the legislative charge on the law.
Over 900,000 Virginians are estimated to be able to seal their misdemeanors under the new provision, while over 100,000 are able to seal their felonies, according to a Virginia State Police presentation to the state Crime Commission.
Part of the delay in setting up the sealing ability was to give circuit courts time to modernize records and prepare for the additional workload.
Charlottesville Circuit Court Clerk Llezelle Dugger noted that it has taken a combination of clerks, state police and the office of the executive secretary in the state’s judicial system to properly prepare.
Nuances had to be sorted out, like how far back the law would permit court records to be sealed and which types of crime would be eligible.
“I give kudos to the Crime Commission,” Dugger said, for helping lawmakers bring the required parties to the table in recent years.
With petitions opening July 1, Dugger does still anticipate some hiccups because certain convictions will be eligible for automatic sealing by October of this year.
For instance, people with past petit larceny, trespassing, shoplifting, disorderly conduct or marijuana distribution misdemeanors would be eligible for automatic sealing so long as they don’t have new convictions within the past seven years.
“I can see a layperson filing for something that would actually become sealed by October,” she said.
Surovell said he’s eager for his bill to begin helping people. During a discussion panel last summer on the pending law, he shared that a constituent reached out to him about how a larceny charge from his youth had “followed him around” for decades.
The new law’s colloquial name is also a nod to a law firm called Clean Slate Virginia and the national movement of the same name. Founder George Townsend, who dedicated his career to helping ex-felons navigate reentry, was also involved in advocacy for Surovell’s and Herring’s bill.
He’s called the law a “game changer” for many of his clients’ personal and professional lives.
Beyond employment and stable housing, Williams said people’s records can bar them from certain civic engagement like volunteer work or helping to chaperone their children’s field trips or sporting trips.
“There’s all these nuanced things that people don’t always think about unless it’s happening to them or their loved one,” she said.
People with misdemeanors that may have been dismissed but still show up on records can also seek an expungement through local circuit courts. This is a related, but different process where a conviction is not simply sealed, but deleted.
More details on automatic or petition-based criteria can be found here.
