My team and I volunteered with our Code for America colleagues, Jazmyn and Sarah, to support Clear My Record services at the Contra Costa Record Clearance Fair. Clear My Record is an application with a simple web form intake that helps people begin the process of clearing past convictions from their records by linking individuals public defenders (and helping the PDs manage the process) throughout California. You can find more information about CMR here: clearmyrecord.codeforamerica.org
The fair was held at a church in Richmond, CA, and hosted by the Contra Costa County Public Defenders office. With a judge on site, convictions were cleared live (with much celebration from individuals and their families) for 300+ pre-screened applicants. Clear My Record additionally helped start the process for 100+ more people in Contra Costa and neighboring counties.
When I wasn’t helping route people to different Clear My Record stations or processing applications myself, I spent the day getting to know legal advocates, other Community Benefit Organizations, and folks running Live Scan Fingerprinting services to help people obtain their criminal records from the State of California.
