BLM Paterson holds clinic to help people navigate the 'bureaucracy' of expungements

PATERSON — William Clark returned home to Paterson last December after spending more than four months in prison on a drug dealing conviction.

Ever since, Clark said, he has been on a mission to get his record wiped clean so he can start his life over — this time on the right side of the law. “It constantly comes up when I do applications and interviews — I get disqualified,” said Clark, 59. “So here I am today.”

Clark was one of about 20 people attending an expungement clinic Saturday in the parking lot behind Black Lives Matter Paterson’s headquarters on Broadway.

Leaders of the group said expungement is an important issue because having a record can prevent residents from housing and employment, and end up trapping them in a cycle of crime, homelessness, and food insecurity.

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“We want to give people a chance to have a second chance,” said Precious Kirby, BLM’s media coordinator.

One of the attendees said people having criminal drug charges on their record is a widespread problem in Paterson.

“A lot of guys in this community have distribution charges,” said a 59-year-old man, who asked to remain anonymous in fear having his name published could jeopardize future job prospects in the warehouse and construction industries. “Once an employer sees my record, they either want me to get bonded or they won’t hire me — and that’s been going on since 2013.”

Some firms hire without running criminal background checks

There are industries that hire workers without running a criminal background check, according to Mike Burry, a representative for Local 360 United Food and Commercial Union, who was at the expungement event.

Certain grocery stores chains — namely ACME and Kings — meat packinghouses, and food distribution plants will hire people with a criminal record, he said.

But, ironically, many positions within the cannabis industry still refuse to hire, which is something that Burry said the United Food and Commercial Union is fighting to change.

“They’re victimizing people long after they’ve served their time,” Burry said. “It’s bizarre that people with a felony conviction for selling cannabis can’t sell cannabis.”

Saturday's clinic was run by a group called Blaze Responsibly, created by cannabis lawyer Chirali Patel in 2020, the same year New Jersey residents voted for the ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana.

“I was part of the movement to get it on the ballot,” said Patel about her involvement with the ACLU-NJ’s “Vote Yes” campaign. “Now it’s a billion dollar industry.”

Patel said it’s an injustice of seeing huge profits made selling a substance while others sat in prison for the same thing.

“That was the trigger for me,” said Patel, who is the founding principal of Blaze Law Firm. “Because they don’t have money for an attorney or because they don’t understand the process, people weren’t getting expungements.”

Expungement like being released from 'paper shackles'

The idea of expungement can be emotional. Patel describes it as being released from “paper shackles.” One woman began crying as she told Paterson Press about how a chronic illness — degenerative arthritis — led down a path of drug addiction and what having her drug dealing charges removed from her record could mean to her.

None of the attendees left with a newly clean record. The expungement clinic is not an instant fix, but rather the start of a process that can sometimes last a year that ends with a judge's approval.

“The thing is, the state takes a long time to process the application,” said Adam Casner, an attorney and volunteer for Patel’s organization. “It’s a lot of bureaucracy.”

Patel said the secret to keep community members engaged in the drawn-out process is regularly following up with them. “We don’t drop the ball,” she said. “Once we file the expungement, we’ll check in with them every six months until their order is granted.”

Reasons people can be disqualified from expungement

Clark, the man released from prison last year, found out on Saturday that he was ineligible for expungement now. He needs to wait for more time to elapse to meet the threshold requirement for clemency.

Other reasons that could disqualify a candidate for expungement are outstanding fines or open warrants. There is also a list of crimes that can’t be forgiven no matter what — that includes sexual assault, robbery, and arson.

“Maybe more doors will open up, but as of now, everything's at a standstill,” Clark said.

The woman with degenerative arthritis, who was trying to gain employment with the school system as a paraprofessional, said her charge — for selling crack cocaine in the 1990s — was so old that it’s not even in the police database. Patel's organization vowed to guide her through the steps of get her case in order.

But she said she was determined to follow through with it.

“It was so long ago,” she said. “They shouldn’t hold you to something you did when you were so young.”

One of Patel’s volunteers, Kyle Page, who served eight and a half years behind bars for cannabis distribution and possession, is living proof that there is light at the end. Now a cultivation technician with Ascend Wellness, one of the state’s largest cannabis retailers and sponsor of the clinic, Page said that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's recent move to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule III substance is a sign of progress.

But the fight isn’t over.

“We need decriminalization because it would allow people, like me, to get expungement,” Page said. “But also, it would make it so you don’t have these people going into prison and creating this generational curse.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: BLM Paterson holds clinic to help people navigate the 'bureaucracy' of expungements