Hide the Criminals

On one hand, certain misdemeanors shouldn't be held against you for your entire life:

• Nearly 2.2 million people in Illinois might see eligible criminal records sealed following passage of the ‘Clean Slate’ Act during last week’s veto session. The bill would require law enforcement agencies to automatically seal eligible criminal records every six months. Excluded from the measure are convictions for sexual violence against minors, DUIs, reckless driving, cruelty to animals and serious violent crimes, including any that would qualify for sex offender registration.

  “We are not adding any crimes that are not currently allowed to be sealed by petition, we are just making the process automatic,” bill sponsor Sen. Elgie Sims Jr., D-Chicago, said during discussion on the Senate floor.

  After an earlier version of the bill failed to clear both chambers during the spring legislative session, House Bill 1836 now awaits only a signature from Gov. JB Pritzker to become law. The legislation passed 39-17 in the Senate and 80-26 in the House during the fall veto session.

  Law enforcement, courts and other relevant agencies would continue to have access to sealed records, but the public and private background check entities would not. Automatic sealing would apply to convictions as well as dismissed or reversed charges and arrests.

  Advocates of the bill say it will give Illinoisians a second chance to participate in society and will open new opportunities to work, vote and secure housing.

And therein lies the problem - in Illinois, it's never just a "second chance." It's third chances and fourth chances and twenty-seventh chances. How many time are we reading about someone with an arrest record running thirty and forty pages, with extensive misdemeanor arrests and convictions.

But how many other times are those misdemeanors the result of half-a-dozen felony charges being pled out? We'll bet it's well over half, probably closer to seventy percent. You can't trust criminal records to reveal anything close to the truth any more, thanks to democrats.