Posted on 07/10/2017 2:25:42 AM PDT by buckalfa
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Non-violent felons can petition the court to have their sentences reduced to misdemeanors, according to a new law in West Virginia.
The West Virginia Second Chance for Employment Act took effect Friday.
Governor Jim Justice signed the bill in April after it passed the Legislature during this year’s session.
Senator Glen Jeffries (D-Putnam, 08) introduced the bill after meeting with several business owners who wanted to hire people, but were not able to due to their previous felony convictions.
“We have a significant amount of people in West Virginia that are in that scenario and we believe that this is going to help them to be able to find employment,” Jeffries told MetroNews.
According to the new law, a person has to be clean for at least 10 years before filing a petition. The petition has to be served to State Police, the county prosecutor, city police or any executive head of a municipal police department and the circuit court of the conviction.
A petition can be obtained on the state Supreme Court’s website or at the county circuit courts. There’s a $300 for the petition. The American Friends Service Committee in West Virginia is a big supporter of the legislation. Rick Wilson, the committee’s program director, said the new law creates opportunities for people to become productive citizens again. “People are going to get out sooner or later, so how can we make it easier for them to reenter and become employed to stabilize their lives? We thought this was a good first step in that direction,” Wilson said.
A lot of people, Wilson said, have drug convictions on their record — making it difficult to find a job.
“If you have that and you can’t get a job, they can’t enter certain professions, it limits your ability to work then what do you think is going to happen,” he said.
Wilson classified the number of people with non-violent felony convictions in West Virginia as “pretty high” including thousands of people. Once a person petitions to court, a judge will decide where to go from there.
Then again there is the philosophy that bad behavior should always have consequences.
Bad behavior should have consequences, but the article is talking about reducing the crimes to misdemeanors ten years after the fact. Should someone's entire life be ruined because they did something stupid 10 years ago?
There time limits on how long convitions for some things that records are kept for.
Any forfeiture some been gone in 5 years of no further convitions.
Tens years for minor crimes.
Then something like this for more serious crimes.
There is no good reason some one needs to know about a civil forfeiture years ago unless it is a ongoing broblem.
This line is confusing to me. Is there a law in West Virginia that prohibits a private employer from hiring a convicted felon?
I suspect this is not the case, and that the business owners cited here really just refrain from hiring felons to protect themselves from potential civil lawsuits by customers or fellow employees if the worker causes trouble on the job. If this is true, then are the business owners simply asking the state to help protect them by hiding the criminal records of prospective employees?
Perceptive observation. Almost all legislation is based on promoting or protecting special interests.
Which seems to me the exact opposite of what America is supposed to be about.
Could be that insurance industry has say in hiring
Higher insurance cost for employing felons perhaps
I wonder if the insurance industry has weighed in on this proposed law?
As far as I’m concerned, if we have nonviolent felonies on the books that people would not care about ten years later, they should not be felonies to begin with. Don’t edit their criminal records; change the law for future initial convictions.
would say I misread your post- but honestly i did not completely read your post
This line is confusing to me. Is there a law in West Virginia that prohibits a private employer from hiring a convicted felon?
Certain types of jobs do not allow employment with felony convictions. Security, some healthcare, teaching etc.
“A business owner who would pay high insurance premiums for hiring a felon is asking the government of West Virginia to turn that felon into a non-felon through the stroke of a pen. “
That got me thinking. Sometime about 20 years ago my brother was working for a company locally that hired work-release inmates to “save money” (least what was told). He was beat up and robbed of some money by some of these thugs. Wonder now if he could have sued his employer?
Those are all non-violent felonies. And, as an employer, I'd sure as Hades want to know if an applicant had committed any if them.
Some drug crimes and DUI might not matter, depending on the job and the details. Otherwise, I’m with you. Note: I knowingly hired someone with a felony DUI record years ago, but that was my decision as it should have been.
Sure, depending on the job. But that’s why this legislation sucks. This can’t and shouldn’t be micromanaged. Let the applicant and employer deal with it. WV is gonna rue the day this was passed.
Embezzlement is a non-violent crime. Bad accountants can once again be trusted with commercial or personal accounts?
I’ve used contractors who’ve hired guys with records. Their bosses knew and vouched for them. I knew and was satisfied with the contractors’ assurances. But that’s the point. Everybody trusted but verified. This legislation gets in the way of that. And for no good reason.
I think you explained it perfectly.
How about a Second Chance for Employment Act for Whites kicked out of their job by non-Whites?
I wonder how many of the non-violent felony convictions were plea bargained down from more serious crimes?
Happens all the time.
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