It is what Michelle DelVecchio said she experienced after leaving prison.
“I had high hopes when I came home,” said DelVecchio, a member of Center for Community Alternatives (CCA). The non-profit, established four decades ago, seeks community-based alternatives to incarceration including advocacy, support services, and public policy development initiatives.
But DelVecchio’s post-release enthusiasm soon dimmed.
“I was rejected from job after job,” she recalled. “I have all the skills and wherewithal to succeed in life, but my past convictions have meant that I don’t have a real second chance.”
DelVecchio revealed these challenges during a virtual rally held on June 29, during which lawmakers, advocates and impacted New Yorkers demanded that state legislators reconvene in Albany this summer to pass the Clean Slate Act.
The proposed legislation would automatically clear a New Yorker’s criminal record once they become eligible. At the rally, lawmakers said the bill is designed to help New Yorkers access jobs and housing by removing an old criminal conviction that would show up on background checks.
In the final days of the latest legislative session, the Senate and Assembly reached a two-way agreement to pass the bill, but have not yet done so.
“We have a moral imperative to pass Clean Slate – not later, not next year, but now,” said Senator Zellnor Myrie, who is the lead sponsor of the legislation. “We cannot wait to get this done. There is a reason why all of us are assembled here fighting for Clean Slate and that is because we understand the power of rehabilitation, of redemption. This is about opportunity. This is about public safety. This is about housing. [This] cannot wait. Let’s get it done.”
Read more: Making second chances real | Bronx Free Press
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