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Our work began in the Fall of 2021 with a total of twen- ty-two grant applications. Through the hard work and dedication of the Emil Gumpert Award Committee, we were able to narrow down the many worthy applicants to three finalists. After intense investigation and site visits, we decided to recommend Clean Slate Utah’s First Step Ex- pungement Program. The recommendation was reviewed and approved by the Board of Regents and funded by the Foundation of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Clean Slate Utah’s First Step Expungement Program was started in 2021 to raise awareness of Utah’s Clean Slate Law and to help low-income individuals learn whether their records were automatically expunged or if they need to be cleared through the petition-based expungement process. If individuals are eligible for a petition-based record clearance, Clean Slate’s First Step Expungement Program will help those individuals understand the legal requirements, apply for an expungement, and cover the non-waivable fees associated with the application process, which is an average of about $260 per person.
Once the expungement is complete, the impacted indi- viduals will be able to legally respond to questions related to their history as if the criminal conviction had never oc- curred. Barriers to employment, housing, education, and full reintegration into society fall and thousands of these individuals can, indeed, have a clean slate.
While she was not able to be with us in Rome, we heard from the Executive Director of Clean Slate Utah, Desti- ny Garcia, who is herself a direct beneficiary of the law.
Her comments demonstrate why the Committee made the right choice and why our awards are vitally necessary. Destiny’s abridged remarks follow:
Here in Utah, one in three people have a criminal record, which also means that fifty percent of children in Utah have a parent that has a criminal record. Having a crim- inal record is a huge barrier on things like housing, em- ployment, or licensures. It’s a huge barrier for anybody to rebuild their life once they do have a criminal record.
I would like to share some of my personal story with you. I am a woman in long-term recovery from substance mis- use disorder. My recovery journey started in 2017. Before that, I was in an abusive relationship for about seven years and in that relationship, I would get injuries that led me to the emergency room. When I would go to the emer- gency room, I would be overprescribed opiates. When I left that relationship, I was extremely addicted to opi- ates. I became homeless very quickly and a heroin addict downtown in Salt Lake City.
I was arrested in 2017 and with the help of law enforcement I was offered residential treatment. I accepted that treatment. I graduated and entered in the drug court program here in Salt Lake County. While I was in that drug court program and after I had graduated treatment, I transitioned into so- ber living. The rules with the drug court program and the sober living home was to get a job within two weeks. That’s when I realized how much my criminal record was a barri- er. I went all over Salt Lake Valley applying for any type of job that you could think of. Every place would not hire me.
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