Program seeks to expunge criminal records of Utah's chronically homeless

Program seeks to expunge criminal records of Utah's chronically homeless

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SALT LAKE CITY — On its face, expunging the criminal records of formerly homeless people to help them obtain housing and jobs seemed simple enough.

But getting there turned out to be a complicated process, said Amy Powers, staff attorney for the nonprofit law office Utah Legal Services. It conducted a pilot program to determine the costs and challenges of wiping clean the criminal records of former chronically homeless people, to remove what can be crippling obstacles to become self-sufficient.

The chronically homeless are people who have experienced homelessness longer than one year or four episodes of homelessness in three years and they have a disabling condition.

According to a Utah Legal Services report, 26 clients among a total of 97 were eligible to seek expungement, reduction of charges or pardons from the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

"Because it was a pilot, it wasn't really known how quickly this could get done. It was hoped it could be a fast-track kind of process, just a few weeks, maybe," said Powers.

Program seeks to expunge criminal records of Utah's chronically homeless

The process turned out to be far more involved than anyone had anticipated. Some people were ineligible for expungement because they had unpaid fines from previous convictions or it was too soon for them to petition courts. Others were not eligible because they had more convictions than allowed by law to seek expungement.

"With the statute the way it is, you can only have four total convictions or less," she said.

Some people had been convicted of criminal offenses that, under Utah law, cannot be expunged, such as first-degree felonies or violent felonies, automobile homicide, felony driving under the influence or sex offenses that require registration on the state's Sex Offender and Kidnap Offender Registry.

"We knew there would be some complications, but it became a whole lot more complicated than we thought," said Lloyd Pendleton, who proposed and oversaw the $80,000 demonstration project while director of Utah's Homeless Task Force.

The program started in April 2014 with 88 potential clients, some referred by caseworkers at supportive housing facilities such as Sunrise Metro, Grace Mary Manor and Palmer Court. Others were Utah Legal Services clients determined to be eligible for the pilot. The majority came from First Step House, a substance abuse treatment program that serves residential and outpatient clients.

Forty-eight petitions have been filed on behalf of clients, some of them with convictions in multiple jurisdictions as well as 27 motions filed in various courts to reduce charges, such as reducing a class B misdemeanor to an infraction. One pardon has been sought.


We knew there would be some complications, but it became a whole lot more complicated than we thought.

–Lloyd Pendleton


Twenty-eight expungement petitions have been granted, and Utah Legal Services has obtained the reduction of charges in 22 cases.

About three-fourths of the potential clients were deemed ineligible for services due to a wide array of reasons, including pending criminal cases.

The most common reason for rejection was the number of convictions the clients had, an earlier report said.

"With this group, most of the convictions would not be considered 'serious' crimes and are generally crimes as a result of their situation, such as retail theft, camping in public, public intoxication, etc.," the report said.

Others had unpaid fines, which halted attorneys' efforts, although the pilot had the flexibility to cover some small fines if that was the only impediment to expunging a client's records, Pendleton said

"If they had a $1,000 fine, we weren't paying that. If they had a $100 or $200 fine we covered that, because we wanted to run this through the whole process," he said.

The pilot program also covered the cost of court filing fees, $135 per petition, which very few judges were willing to waive, the report said.

The estimated costs of an expungement with the consent of a prosecutor was nearly $1,500 per petition, the report said. If the expungement was contested, costs could exceed $2,400 per petition. Pardon applications could exceed $2,700.

Of the people determined eligible for reductions or expungement, some had criminal convictions in multiple jurisdictions. Criminal charges that were dismissed also needed to be removed from their records, which required other petitions.

"When they started laying all of this out, one person could have like 25 expungement processes. I thought, whoa, this is a whole lot more complicated to get your record expunged," Pendleton said.

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While only about a fourth of the clients were eligible for the law office's services under the pilot, Powers said.

"Even though there weren't a lot of clients we were able to help, for the people we could help, we did a lot or are currently trying to do a lot for them," she said. One client, for instance, has 15 open cases, she said.

Pendleton said he considers the program a success because it provided a glimpse into the challenges and costs of seeking expungement, reductions and pardons.

"It was a good learning experience. The pilot was worth the $80,000. We learned a lot. We'll have a system in place that will deal with what we think the need is," Pendleton said.

Utah Legal Services is now working with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families under a separate initiative. The goal of TANF, a federally funded public assistance program, is to help poor families achieve self-sufficiency.

"Expanding to the TANF group, we've noticed, because it's not the chronically homeless group, it's a little less difficult," Powers said.

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