30.2% of Americans have been arrested for a crime by age 23. CGLA’s Criminal Records program helps over 2,000 clients file petitions to expunge or seal their criminal record and has a 53% grant rate for clemency petitions.
Individuals with a criminal record often encounter barriers to housing, education and employment that bar them from becoming fully productive members of their families and communities. The Criminal Records program helps individuals remove these barriers from their past through clemency, expungement and sealing so they can make significant life changes moving forward.
Expungement Help Desk
Our Expungement Help Desk at the Daley Center serves over 4,000 clients annually. Most have either no convictions or only minor, non-violent convictions from years ago. 81% want to clear their records because they have been denied employment or fired from a job. CGLA staff and volunteer attorneys and law students help clients navigate the complicated expungement and sealing process and if eligible, file a petition immediately. If they are not able to file immediately, CGLA also accepts over 150 in-house criminal records clients annually on more involved matters including health-care waivers, motions to reconsider, identity-theft petitions, employment certificates, and others.
Clemency
We accept 40 clemency cases each year. Staff attorneys and volunteers help clients present their petitions to the Prisoner Review Board. We represent those who are most likely to have their petition granted have had a tremendous success rate. Since Governor Quinn took office in 2009, we have a 53% clemency petition grant rate compared to the overall 42% grant rate.
Live-Call
CGLA and the Chicago Legal Clinic (CLC) assist individuals in expungement and sealing hearings who otherwise would have no legal representation. Three afternoons a week, CGLA and CLC attorneys and volunteers meet with individuals before their hearing to advise them on the proceedings and then help present their petition to the court. Significantly, 95% of the 55 petitions presented each time are granted the same day. We also provide follow-up and advice on next steps for both individuals whose petitions are granted, and for those that are continued.
