Baltimore and Montgomery County are learning about expungement from Salt Lake County
Part Three of a Three-Part Series
Interested in learning more? Continue reading Parts One and Two.
On January 31st and February 1st, 2019, the County of Salt Lake engaged in a double peer exchange, first with the City of Baltimore and then with the County of Montgomery (MD), supported by Results for America’s Local Government Fellowship program. These exchanges were organized by Results for America Local Government Fellows Megan Hillyard, Director of Administrative Services for Salt Lake County, and Robert Cenname, Budget Director for Baltimore City, and Dave Gottesman, CountyStat Manager for Montgomery County. Salt Lake County was interested in learning more about Outcome Budgeting, performance management, and performance dashboards from both Baltimore and Montgomery County. In turn, Salt Lake County shared information on recent expungement work that is creating employment and better housing opportunities for Salt Lake County residents. This is the third part of a three-part Medium post detailing the learnings of the three jurisdictions over the course of the two-day exchange.
Background: Why are Baltimore and Montgomery County interested in Salt Lake County’s expungement work?
Baltimore City, Montgomery County, and Salt Lake County have all recognized that a prior criminal history creates significant employment barriers and contributes to a chronic problem of underemployment. Expungement is a significant driver of an individual’s success in engaging employment, housing, and other services. The ability to relieve the burden of this significant barrier has shown incredible impacts upon recidivism.
Learning: The Salt Lake County team, led by Noella Sudbury, Director of the Criminal Justice Advisory Board and Senior Policy Advisor to the Mayor, sat down with Jason Perkins-Cohen, Baltimore’s Director of the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development and Montgomery County’s Robert Green, former Director for the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, and Esther Davani, Program Manager/Data Analyst for the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, in each respective location. Takeaways from the meetings were similar and included:
- Utah and Maryland Law are similarly restrictive. The differences between Maryland and Utah law and the timeframes for eligible offenses to be expunged were compared. The laws are similarly restrictive, but there is a path forward to engage the process when it is approached as a collaborative effort.
- A holistic approach is the best approach. It is critical to consider the additional support services often needed by individuals who are eligible for expungement. The jurisdictions shared efforts to not only offer expungement support, but also connect individuals to additional services such as child support, credit issues, employment training etc.
- Single day events such as Expungement Days offer opportunities to collect important data. The data Salt Lake County collected leading up to Expungement Day highlighted the fact that many people who were formerly incarcerated are searching for better employment and housing opportunities. This data has helped establish bipartisan support for 2019 Utah Expungement legislation.
- Data and research can breakdown political disagreements. Current research indicates that if a person who was formerly incarcerated has not had an offense in seven years, they are no more likely to commit a crime than any other member of the population. The group discussed the fact that this kind of data helps garner support for expungement and legislation efforts.
- Never underestimate the power of peer learning. All parties agreed the exchange of experiences and ideas was valuable. It is important to get out of routine thinking to look for creative ways of approaching similar problems.
Applying the learning: The Salt Lake County team will be doing a follow up training at one of the Montgomery County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee meetings via Skype. The County team is available as a resource for other jurisdictions interested in sharing ideas and experiences around this work. Additionally, the jurisdictions shared the metrics they are tracking and using the shared learning to improve their respective dashboards.
Want to learn more?
- Read City on the Line: How Baltimore Transformed Its Budget to Beat the Great Recession and Deliver Outcomes by former Baltimore Budget Director and RFA Local Government Fellow Andrew Kleine.
- Explore Montgomery County’s CountyStat site.
- Read about Salt Lake County’s expungement work.
- Utilize the Center for American Progress’ Clean Slate Toolkit.
