Virtual Event: It’s time to reform state expungement law

Wisconsin’s expungement law is flawed and unlike any other in the nation. The law, designed to allow for people with low-level, non-violent offenses to essentially have their record sealed, is so restrictive that it makes it difficult for anyone to receive an expungement and makes it nearly impossible for judges to make informed decisions.

Join the Badger Institute tomorrow March 24, 2021, at NOON for a virtual discussion with two Wisconsinites who have seen firsthand the need for reform: State Public Defender Kelli Thompson and Shanyeill McCloud, founder of Clean Slate Milwaukee.

In a conversation moderated by Badger Institute Policy Analyst Julie Grace, Thompson and McCloud will discuss the shortcomings of the current law and the benefits that reform would provide to those seeking a second chance.

Please sign up here.

'A breath of fresh air'

Expungement reform would open new opportunities for grandmother, teacher

By JULIE GRACE | March 23, 2021

Ryann Counce Barnes is a mother of two, a soon-to-be grandmother, an owner of a family childcare center and a teacher at Milwaukee Public Schools, where she has worked in various roles since 2006.

But when Barnes and her husband recently tried to rent an apartment in Texas where he got a new job, their applications were denied due to a 2005 conviction on her record.

“I completely forgot about the crime,” says Barnes. “Every application said they couldn’t rent to me. I appealed, wrote a letter, but every place we looked at wouldn’t let me be on the lease.”

The crime standing in their way was a Class A misdemeanor (criminal damage to property) that Barnes committed when she was 27 years old. She is open about the offense and told the Badger Institute that she “vandalized” her then-boyfriend’s and another woman’s cars after catching them together, confirming her speculation that he was cheating on her. They had been dating for three years.

“It was all me, all my fault,” says Barnes. “If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t have done it. But at that moment, I was just mad.”

Read the full article here.