By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//April 2, 2019//
A committee of state lawmakers recently moved forward a piece of legislation aimed at expanding the state’s expungement laws.
Expungement refers to a process used to remove criminal convictions from the state’s online records. In Wisconsin, those eligible for expungement include offenders who committed crimes before the age of 25 and offenders who committed felonies and misdemeanors that have no more than a six-year maximum prison sentence. Also, expungement can only be requested and ordered at sentencing proceedings.
Senate Bill 39 would both add to the types of persons who would be eligible for expungement and to the times when expungement could be ordered. The proposal would, among other things, remove the current age limit and, in cases when expungement was not ordered at sentencing, allow judges to order expungement after an offender had completed a sentence. SB 39 also clarifies that, for employment purposes, expunged crimes are not considered convictions.
The Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety voted 4-1 Tuesday afternoon to recommend the bill for adoption after making a technical modification defining a record as a criminal case file.
Sen. Andre Jacque, a Republican from DePere, was the only lawmaker who voted to oppose SB 39. Ahead of the vote, two of his colleagues, the Democratic senators Fred Risser and Lena Taylor, and thye Republican Sen. Alberta Darling, urged Jacque to explain why he is opposed to the bill.
“I just have issues with how quickly we are taking some of these steps,” Jacque said. “This is something where I’m happy to continue having discussions.”
The committee on Tuesday also unanimously passed Senate Bill 56, which would a $5,000 surcharge on people convicted of certain crimes involving prostitution.
The next step for both SB 39 and SB 36 is a vote before the full chamber of the Senate. Companion bills moved forward in the Assembly last week. Follow @erikastrebel