Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - A bipartisan group of lawmakers Tuesday proposed allowing judges to seal more records of low-level criminal offenses, which they said could help thousands of people find jobs and secure housing.

The proposal is one that brings together lawmakers and groups that are often at odds. Among those backing the proposal are the liberal American Civil Liberties Union and conservative Americans for Prosperity.

In Wisconsin, judges must decide at sentencing whether someone is eligible to eventually have their criminal record expunged. It's the only state in the country to handle expunging cases this way, according to a 2018 report by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum.

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Under the bill unveiled Tuesday, judges could decide after offenders complete their sentences whether to keep their criminal records from being easily obtained by the public. That way, judges would have more information than they do now when deciding such matters.

To have their records expunged, people would have to have successfully completed their sentences — including by paying fines and fees — and not have committed new crimes. The judges would expunge the records if they determined doing so would benefit the individual and not harm society.

Prosecutors would inform victims of the request and would have a chance to argue for or against having the records expunged.

Once expunged, a case would be sealed and there would be no record of it on the state court system's online database of cases. Such records would still be available through criminal background checks conducted by the state Department of Justice.

Now, expunging records is available only to those who are under 25 and have committed misdemeanors or low-level felonies. The bill would eliminate the age restriction but would not change the types of crimes that are eligible to be expunged.

Backers said they expected the measure to give thousands of people a chance to clear their records. That would help them find employment, they said at a Capitol news conference.

"Expungement is a way to cleanse the slate for those who are looking to move forward with their life," said Rep. David Steffen, a Republican from Green Bay.

"Expungement really is that second chance," said Sen. Alberta Darling, a River Hills Republican.

The two are sponsoring the bill along with two Democrats — Rep. Evan Goyke of Milwaukee and Sen. Fred Risser of Madison.

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said he was troubled that the bill would keep from the public information about court cases.

"I wish that it weren't seen as necessary to shield this information from state residents both at the circuit court level and through the online court record system," he told reporters. "I wish that there were some trust in the ability of the citizens of Wisconsin to be discerning in their judgments about the public records that they can see."

The Assembly unanimously approved a similar bill last year, but the Senate did not go along with it before the legislative session ended. Backers said they thought they had a better chance this time, particularly because Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has put an emphasis on bipartisan criminal justice reform.

How expunging court records is handled varies greatly from state to state, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum report. Iowa and eight other states do not allow the removal of records of any adult criminal convictions.

Researchers found more than 30,000 closed cases in Milwaukee County alone between 2006 and 2017 that would meet the current criteria for expunging records.