CRRC Public Comment Invitation
Invitation to Provide Public Comment:
In-person (oral) public comments. The Criminal Records Review Committee will set aside time at a future meeting (or meetings) for members of the public to provide public comment in-person (or remotely over Zoom). Additional details will be posted on this website as soon as they are available. Notice will also be sent to the interested parties email list, which you may subscribe to through the following link: https://lists.legislature.maine.gov/sympa/info/criminal.records.review-ip.
General invitation for written public comments: The Criminal Records Review Committee invites members of the public to provide public comments in writing at any time before the CRRC’s final meeting on November 19, 2024. The committee requests that members of the public focus their comments and suggestions focus on the committee’s duties listed in Section 5 of Resolve 2023, chapter 103:
- Review activities in other states that address the expungement, sealing, vacating of and otherwise limiting public access to criminal records;
- Consider so-called clean slate legislation options;
- Consider whether the following convictions should be subject to different treatment:
- Convictions for conduct that has been decriminalized in this State over the last 10 years and conduct that is currently under consideration for decriminalization;
- Convictions for conduct that is nonviolent or involves the use of marijuana; and
- Convictions for conduct that was committed by victims and survivors of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking;
- Consider whether there is a time limit after which some or all criminal records should not be publicly available;
- Invite comments and suggestions from interested parties, including but not limited to victim advocates and prison and correctional reform organizations;
- Review existing information about the harms and benefits of making criminal records confidential, including the use and dissemination of those records;
- Invite comments and suggestions concerning the procedures to limit public accessibility of criminal records;
- Consider who, if anyone, should continue to have access to criminal records that are not publicly available;
- Develop options to manage criminal records; and
- Review and consider criminal records expungement legislation referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary during the 131st Legislature, including, but not limited to, legislative documents 848, 1550, 1646 and 1789.
You may submit your written comments via email to CRRC@legislature.maine.gov. At each committee meeting, staff will distribute to committee members copies of any public comments received by 5:00 p.m. on the business day prior to the meeting. Written comments received after that time will be distributed to committee members as soon as possible (but may not be distributed until the meeting is over).
Please remember that any comments submitted for distribution to the committee are a matter of public record and may be posted on this website. Please avoid including any private or sensitive personal information in your submissions.
Deadline for submission of comments: Written public comments must be submitted before 5:00 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024 to ensure that they can be distributed to and considered by the committee before it holds its final meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.