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Andrew Waite: With Clean Slate proposal, Schenectady council can get down to business

The Daily Gazette - 2/12/2023

Feb. 11—Article Audio:

As a convicted drug felon serving time between 2004 and 2007, Trent Griffin-Braaf took courses through Marist College and thought he might go on to earn a degree once he finished his 4-to-12-year prison sentence.

The Schenectady High School graduate, now 38, wasn't exactly sure what career he wanted to pursue. He just knew he wanted to be successful like the men in suits he saw carrying briefcases on Wall Street when he was a kid in Manhattan.

"I didn't give much thought to it, to be honest. I just thought, I'll come home, I'll get a job. It's not that big of a deal," Griffin-Braaf said of his mindset as a young man in prison. "But it ended up being a lot harder than I actually thought."

After being released, Griffin-Braaf faced a number of barriers as a result of his conviction for selling cocaine, including not being eligible to receive Federal Student Aid. That killed his college dreams. (Such aid would likely have been available to him today.)

In addition, Griffin-Braaf wasn't able to move in with his then-girlfriend, now-wife, because she lived in public housing, and his conviction precluded him from taking advantage of the benefit. (This would likely still be the case today.)

What's more, most work opportunities closed the second he revealed his criminal history.

"As soon as you check that box, you're almost guaranteed no phone call back," said Griffin-Braaf, who is now the CEO of his own transportation company, Tech Valley Shuttle. "Coming out of prison, especially coming home if you have a felony, it puts a lot of barriers up. Although you're supposed to have admitted your guilt and served your time for the crime, it oftentimes feels like you are being re-punished for the same thing that you already served your time for."

While Griffin-Braaf persevered, moving up from temp jobs and cleaning hotel toilets to eventually start his own company, many people coming out of prison don't have the same support networks or meet the same accepting employers. As a result, many people are held back by past criminal convictions for their entire lives.

New York's so-called Clean Slate Act, which is a bill that previously passed in the state Senate but hasn't yet passed in the Assembly, would help ensure convictions don't forever follow New Yorkers.

The bill calls for automatically sealing — not erasing — old conviction records for important facets of life such as housing and job applications. Misdemeanor convictions could be sealed three years after a person's release and felony convictions could be sealed seven years after a person's release. Importantly, sex offenses wouldn't be sealed. In addition, the bill calls for more restrictions on sealing than I have the space to enumerate here, but critical components include the fact that entities such as schools, the Department of Motor Vehicles and law enforcement would still be able to run background checks that would access a person's full criminal history. And, yes, it's currently possible for people to apply to have their records sealed, but this right is vastly underutilized — and New York's Clean Slate Act would grant the right automatically.

The bottom line is that Clean Slate is not about protecting criminals, as detractors argue. It's about granting people with convictions a second chance and not letting past mistakes limit futures.

The Schenectady City Council is scheduled to consider a resolution on Monday that would effectively proclaim the body's support for the state bill. Other local bodies, including in Albany, Poughkeepsie and Hudson, have passed similar pieces of legislation.

Yet somehow, the largely symbolic measure in Schenectady has become majorly controversial. And, unfortunately, like so much lately with the all-Democratic City Council, the split falls along racial lines. In this case, the three white council members have thus far opposed the city's support for Clean Slate, while the four council members of color have expressed support. A previous vote to pass the measure in January only failed because Council Member John Mootooveren was absent from the meeting.

On Monday night, council members should do the right thing and pass the resolution in support of Clean Slate. Doing so will prove the body doesn't buy into the stereotypes and misinformation that have delayed Clean Slate from becoming state law. And if the council can muster unanimous support, its members would demonstrate the body has the ability to unite over an idea that makes sense and avoid rancorous rifts over something as simple as whether to agree with a proposed state law.

Clean Slate opponents want us to think such a law would put us all in danger.

"The Clean Slate Act would seal the misdemeanor records of a criminal after three years and felony records after seven years. What this means to a landlord or an employer is that after that period of time, they will be unable to fully appreciate the risk they may be taking with a tenant or employee," said Matt Nelligan, City of Schenectady GOP chairman and a candidate for mayor.

But that risk is overblown. No doubt, recidivism rates remain stubbornly high in the United States, although they appear to be coming down. A 2021 report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics found three-year prison return rates fell from about 50% to 39% comparing 2005 to 2012 — the years studied in the report. Notably, violent crimes have markedly lower rates of repeat offense, with a roughly 28% rearrest rate in 2012.

So how likely is it that the job or tenant applicant you're interviewing really poses a serious risk to you? After all, because more serious crimes typically come with longer prison sentences, the length of those sentences alone is going to greatly reduce the amount of violent criminals who ever even have the chance to be eligible to have their records sealed.

Plus, when you consider why most people commit crimes, it's not because they are naturally destructive. Often, they're desperate. Numerous studies — including a study from the U.S. Department of Justice done all the way back in 1986 — show increased poverty leads to an increase in crime.

And poverty stems from not having the same job, housing and educational opportunities.

That's exactly the cycle the Clean Slate bill aims to correct.

The bill has support from labor unions and business groups, including The Business Council of New York State, precisely because of the projected economic benefit. The state loses about $1.9 billion every year as a result of roughly 337,000 New Yorkers who have spent time in prison during their lives and an estimated 2.3 million New Yorkers with criminal records, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Some estimates show even more New Yorkers may have criminal records. Brennan Center research suggests people with criminal records could see their lifetime earnings drop by at least $100,000, with prison time only propelling it higher.

When the overall state economy loses out, we all lose out.

It's true that nothing currently stops an employer or landlord from accepting someone with a criminal record, but we all know what happens in reality.

The Business Council seems to recognize the truth: "Yes, an individual may have the opportunity, but we have to just be honest and think about natural human bias," said Crystal Griffith, director of Workforce Development at The Business Council.

Inequality is cyclical in this country. First, our criminal justice system disproportionately arrests people of color — of the 337,000 New Yorkers who have spent time in prison, 75% are people of color, according to the Brennan Center. Then our broader society uses convictions to continue to hold people back.

"People put weight on conviction histories as if that information is forever meaningful when it is not," said Kate Wagner-Goldstein, director of New York Reentry Initiatives at the Legal Action Center. "That weight relies on stigmas and false assumptions."

New York has a chance to pass legislation that rights these wrongs and join states including Oklahoma, Utah, Pennsylvania and Virginia that already have Clean Slate laws on the books.

The Schenectady City Council's supportive measure, which was first introduced by Council Member Carl Williams, would help show that the issue resonates in upstate communities. And, in fact, the Clean Slate law would create economic benefits for the city and region, potentially removing barriers to work for the county's roughly 28,100 living with conviction records accounting for roughly $86.8 million in lost revenue, according to the Paper Prisons Initiative. As the region and city hopes to continue revitalization efforts, it should be doing everything it can to ensure it's drawing from the broadest possible workforce.

Griffin-Braaf, who employs just shy of 80 people at Tech Valley Shuttle, which provides transportation around the Capital Region to people heading to the airport, office and other destinations, makes a point of hiring people with criminal histories. He's hired convicted murderers and armed robbers and is unafraid to put people with records in front-facing roles like sales.

He believes people with convictions, once given an opportunity, tend to be even more motivated and diligent workers than many others because they are grateful for the new start. He said about a third of his current staff have criminal records.

With a fleet of 50 vehicles and sales booming, Griffin-Braaf believes his commitment to hiring so many people with criminal records has been a boon to business.

It's interesting, then, that some of the opposition to the city of Schenectady's Clean Slate measure stems from accusations of misplaced priorities, accusations of social justice initiatives impeding city business.

"Simply put, my colleagues have proven to be pro-criminal and anti-victim," said Council Member John Polimeni before voting against the city's resolution last month. "They've put their activism before the city, our neighborhoods or our citizens."

But, with the Clean Slate measure, the council would be wise to reflect on what actually restricts city business — both the council's agenda and Schenectady's economic outlook. Such reflection would help them realize what stands to truly spur progress.

Columnist Andrew Waite can be reached at awaite@dailygazette.net and at 518-417-9338. Follow him on Twitter @UpstateWaite.

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