Under current state law, the Minnesota Expungement Statute limits which felony convictions are eligible for expungement. An expungement is the removal of a conviction from a person’s criminal record. In Minnesota, expungement means that criminal records are sealed rather than permanently destroyed.  In other words, each state agency is ordered to seal that criminal record and “may not disclose their existence or open them unless otherwise authorized by a court order or statutory authority.”

The legislature has acknowledged only a handful of felonies that are eligible for expungement by statutory authority. Without the opportunity for expungement, criminal records are accessible to the public through multiple online databases. With a click of a button, a landlord, employer, or the public can track a person’s criminal history. This is problematic because increased public access to criminal records negatively impacts employment and housing opportunities for convicted felons.

The current Minnesota Expungement Statute is problematic because it is an expensive process, the statute does not guarantee an expungement, the expungement process is difficult to navigate pro se, and the statute limits the felonies that are eligible for expungement. The solution to these problems is to automatically expunge first-time felony drug possession convictions after five years. This new model will allow for proper rehabilitation, economic increase, and reduced recidivism for those convicted of first-time felony drug possession.