Josh Wilson, 57, hasn’t committed a crime in almost 17 years but the felony convictions on his record have hindered his search for work.
“First, I tried to drive for Metro Transit. I got denied because of my criminal history,” he said. “I can’t even do DoorDash, I can’t even do Uber because of my criminal history and this (conviction) is 16 years old.”
Wilson is now employed by the Minneapolis Public Works Department and is hoping to get a management-level position.
“If I could get a management position, I’d be really close to six figures a year,” he said.
To make that a reality, Wilson, along with dozens of others, attended an expungement clinic held by the Hennepin County Attorney’s office on Wednesday, where adults with felony convictions from the office can start an expedited process to get the convictions off their records. The clinic, in partnership with Urban League Twin Cities and the Minnesota Justice Research Center, among others, aimed to help people get a fresh start to remove barriers and rebuild their lives.
“Seeing the number of people that are here and hearing about the number of people that have been here all day is wonderful in a sense, but also, it is bittersweet,” said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. “People have been convicted of felonies and even after they’ve done whatever it is that they needed to do, they can’t move forward with their lives, and so we can see the tremendous need for expungement.”
Other attendees included Tyrone Henry, 56, who’s hoping to go back to college after getting two felonies off his record, which are preventing him from accessing financial aid. Eventually, he wants to get a loan to start his own small business.
“I’ve got a job but I’m just trying to better my life,” Henry said. “I’m trying to start any kind of Black-owned business – I build houses, I can (do) landscaping and construction.”
Moriarty said her office came up with the idea as a way to make the process of expungement more accessible. Her office has one attorney that does expungements and the online version of the process was already available, but due to reasons like being English as a second language or lack of access to a computer, they decided to bring the process into the community.
In addition to helping improve the lives of residents by removing barriers to success, Moriarty said she sees expungement as a way to improve public safety as well.
“If somebody has a felony conviction and they cannot get a job, they can’t find a house they can afford, it could be a huge problem and they could go out and do things that we don’t want them to do,” she said. “So giving them that opportunity to move forward is really critical to public safety.”
Several other organizations like the League of Women Voters and MAD DADS were at the event to provide resources like helping people register to vote, do their taxes and find jobs.
“Being in the community more often will bring more awareness to the fact that we are able to help people and hopefully some of their issues can be resolved,” said Natasha Rice, a community representative from Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (MN-5th) office, who was at the event to provide assistance to attendees who may be having issues related to federal agencies, like housing or immigration.
Moriarty said her office plans to hold several more community expungement clinics going forward.
Mohamed Ibrahim
Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.
