Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton and Code for America today announced that 3,264 marijuana convictions eligible for relief under Proposition 64 will be dismissed and sealed.
“I am grateful the partnership with Code for America has given us the ability to deliver tangible results for members of our community by dismissing old marijuana convictions allowed under the law. Far too often old criminal convictions for minor drug offenses can leave a lasting mark on an individual’s life. The removal of these convictions effectively reduces barriers to licensing, education, housing and employment. It is imperative that we continue to be innovative in our approach to reforming and strengthening the criminal justice system,” said Diana Becton, District Attorney for Contra Costa County.
The Contra Costa District Attorney’s office used Code for America’s Clear My Record technology, which reads bulk criminal history data from the California Department of Justice, and securely and accurately analyzes eligibility for record remediation under state law. This technology can analyze eligibility for thousands of convictions in just a few minutes, alleviating the need for DA staff to go through state criminal records one by one to evaluate eligibility, a time and labor-intensive process.
Contra Costa is the fifth California District Attorney’s Office to announce a pilot partnership with Code for America and use Clear My Record Technology to clear marijuana-related convictions eligible under Proposition 64. The other counties include San Francisco, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Los Angeles.
In total, these five pilots will help reduce or dismiss approximately 75,000 Proposition 64 eligible convictions.
Don’t care.
Rediculious
Salty here.
Glad to see that our TAX PAYER money is getting used for this. Thanks Miss DA
Salty out!!
Now everybody get high.
So it doesn’t matter that you were breaking the law when you were caught?
I want out!!!
Just another liberal.
Does the broken window policy mean anything to anybody.
California is leading the nation in the forgiveness of marijuana convictions…..setting an example as always……making sure potential employers can’t screen out habitual offenders…….How is erasing a record “reforming and strengthening the criminal justice system”?
Sure, it gives people who make poor choices a break. That’s amnesty, which has little to do with reformation.
oh great…..they dont prosecute current cases stating they dont have the manpower….but yet they have the time, money and manpower to go back and clear convictions of people for breaking a law that was on the books at the time….I wonder if they are going to clear the convictions of those that were found guilty of stealing more than $400 but now less $950 because todays law books say it is now only a misdemeanor and not a felony……way to go D.A…….
Exactly Ms. DA. If you’re going to do it for one crime, you must do it for all. Grand Theft down to petty! Sounds like the DA’s office will need more staff!! Wait……..that was supposed to be sarcasm. With this DA I’m just giving her more ideas for ridiculousness!
Smoking weed or selling it to someone who wants to purchase is a victim-less crime. I agree with the DA on this one.
This is like the church annulling a marriage.
Like it never actually happened….
They still broke the law as it was written at the time. Convictions should stand.
I miss Mark Peterson.
And then Becton will use this to “show” that her program has reduced crime. Kinda like not investigating/prosecuting theft under $950.
It’s amazing how many people don’t understand why the marijuana laws changed. It wasn’t so people could smoke freely, everybody has been doing that for years, it’s so the police would quite using weed as an excuse to arrest people of color. As a white girl who has been caught with weed several times and I wasn’t even given so much as a ticket-and others are arrested for the same crime. It’s been disproportionate for a long time, so this is the right thing to do.