The state of Connecticut has hired an outside contractor to help fix major data quality issues after a law that mandates the automatic clearing of tens of thousands of criminal records has experienced delay after delay.
The Indiana-based company, called iLab Consultants, will meet with various stakeholders during the first week of October as they begin to diagnose technical problems with the state’s information technology systems, according to state officials.
The state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) hired the software quality assurance company in July in hopes of accelerating the automatic erasures of low-level criminal convictions.
Records reviewed by The Accountability Project show the company’s work will include ensuring the “consistency, integrity, and reliability” of the criminal record data collected from various state agencies. The company will also work on implementing strategies that ensure the wrong convictions aren’t erased, which has been an ongoing challenge.
“The goal is to move this as quickly as possible,” said Richard Green, a spokesperson for DESPP, which is overseeing implementation of the law. “The hope is hiring an outside consultant and putting more resources will move this quickly.”
Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont in 2021 signed Connecticut’s Clean Slate law, which requires the state to automatically erase most old, low-level convictions from people’s criminal records after seven years for eligible misdemeanors, or 10 years for eligible felony convictions. Sex crimes and family violence crimes are not eligible for erasure under the law.
But three years after the bill was signed, the state is still struggling to implement the automatic erasure process.
Advocates for the legislation say it gives people in Connecticut with criminal records a second chance at life. Those with convictions often face hurdles in accessing jobs and housing despite completing their sentence.
Most erasures were supposed to begin by January 2023, but the process was delayed as lawmakers made technical tweaks to the law and expanded the types of crimes eligible for erasure.
In December 2023, Lamont announced that the state’s information technology systems were finally ready to put the law into effect, and said more than 80,000 people in Connecticut could expect to have their convictions automatically cleared by the end of January 2024.
But the state again missed its target. Erasures were put on hold earlier this year because of data quality issues resulting in false positives. Only about 13,600 people have had their criminal records cleared under the law as of July.
“From our point of view, this is justice delayed being justice denied,” said Phil Kent, a member of Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut (CONECT), an advocacy organization and collective of churches, mosques, and temples. “And it really is impacting some of the most vulnerable communities that we have, preventing people from going back to work, from getting more stable housing.”
Lamont’s administration has held no press conference updating the public on Clean Slate’s rollout since December 2023, to the dismay of advocates.
“We are concerned that there’s been a lot of silence and a lot of people kept in the dark throughout this whole process,” said Matt McDermott, a spokesperson for CONECT. “People deserve transparency and clarity and communication.”
A total of 119,383 people in Connecticut have criminal records eligible for automatic erasure, according to Green.
The state has already spent more than $8 million to upgrade its information technology systems across state agencies, according to material presented at the January 2024 meeting of the governing board that oversees the state’s Criminal Justice Information System.
A four-person team from iLab Consultants will assess those systems to deduce what’s going wrong, according to project proposal documents. The team includes information technology specialists, engineers and data analysts. A project invoice shows the state will pay nearly $500,000 for the company’s services.
“As of right now, there are no erasures going on,” Green said. “And I don’t think there will be a determination on when erasures will start until the consultant gets a look at everything and comes up with a comprehensive game plan.”
David Bednarz, a spokesperson for Lamont, said in a statement the law remains a priority for the governor’s administration, which has committed millions of dollars to implement it.
“He is frustrated with the delay in implementation and remains committed to getting this done and getting this done right,” Bednarz said.
Dawn Grant-Lockley, a New Haven resident who served four years in prison for a conspiracy for murder conviction in 1994, said she hopes the law will be implemented soon.
Although her conviction isn’t eligible for erasure under the Clean Slate law, Grant-Lockley said she’s fighting for the cause because she knows “what it feels like to feel like nothing” because of a criminal record.
“So the hundreds of thousands of people that it does apply to, maybe they won’t feel that way,” she said. “But at the rate they’re going, they will. They already do.”
Under Clean Slate, the automatic clearing applies to any criminal convictions that took place on or after Jan. 1, 2000, though those who committed crimes before then can petition for an erasure through court.
This story was first published Sept. 30, 2024 by Connecticut Public.