Alliance seeks to provide legal services to those with cannabis convictions


Alliance seeks to provide legal services to those with cannabis convictions

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     On January 1, 2020, Cannabis Possession and Consumption was legalized in the state of Illinois. Part of the legislation included a path for those with cannabis conviction to get their records expunged.
     During a recent press conference, Illinois Equal Justice Foundation announced the launch of New Leaf Illinois. The State-funded program is an alliance of 20 organizations across Illinois that will provide free legal and advisory services to assist people with marijuana convictions.
     Gray Mateo-Harris, board member with Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, said New Leaf Illinois is necessary because it brings to reality the vision of decriminalizing cannabis use, from a social justice and equity perspective. She said there are people who have been unjustly subjected to the criminalization of cannabis use.      “Even though cannabis is now legal, these individuals may have a criminal record, that can make it harder for them to get a job, advance their education or even be able to rent an apartment,” she said. “New Leaf Illinois was created to help these people start fresh and clear their records. It is time to help those who were previously punished or impacted by the criminalization of cannabis restore their records.”
     Mateo-Harris added that Black and brown communities, as well as economically disadvantaged communities, were disproportionately penalized for past criminalization. She said the expungement process is one step in repairing that harm.
     “We know that the legal system can seem intimating or confusing, which is exactly why we are providing access to free legal aid professionals to help each step of the way,” she said. “We encourage anyone who has a past cannabis conviction to register for expungement support.”
     Mateo-Harris said while there will be some expungements that happen automatically, it will not cover everyone and will happen along a very different timeline. “We have over 700,000 that are eligible for expungement. As you can imagine, 700,000 will not be cleared at the same timeline as people would like,” she said.
     Speaking of timelines, Mateo-Harris used the example of Category 1 minor cannabis offenses, involving police records, which doesn’t cover court records. She said those offenses are supposed to be expunged on a timeline so that any such offenses that led to arrest, or resulted in a dismissal, acquittal or were never charged - if they occurred between January 2013 and June 2019- then those offenses are supposed to be expunged automatically by January 2021. “People prior to 2013, all the way back to before 2000, that’s not scheduled until 2025,” she said.
     Mateo-Harris also made clear that it was only the police records and not the court records for Category 1 minor cannabis offenses. She said the Category 2 offenses, that are not associated with a violent offense conviction, are being expunged through the pardon process, which can be a lengthy process.
     “We know that the Governor, as Leslie (Corbett, of Illinois Equal Justice Foundation) said, has granted 11,000 pardons, but that’s out of a pool of 116,000 potentially eligible records,” she said. “Those are the two of the reasons New Leaf is really needed, are to help folks, not only that can’t wait for the timeline that is in place, for the automatic expungements, or whose convictions or arrests are not going to be covered because of court records or there was a violent offense issue, or something else in place.”
     Mateo-Harris acknowledged the expungement process can be complicated for the average person. “We still want people to call, even if they don’t know if they’ll be covered,” she said.
For more information, visit newleafillinois.org.

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