Margo Walsh is the founder and CEO of MaineWorks.

Earlier this month, I submitted testimony to Maine’s Joint Judiciary Committee on an issue close to my heart. 

I founded MaineWorks in 2011 to provide meaningful employment opportunities for people in recovery from substance use disorder and people returning home from jail and prison. My work is inspired by my own experiences with substance use and recovery — a journey that brought me back home to Maine and into the county jail as a volunteer, where I met people who inspired the next phase of my life. Over the years, we’ve helped thousands of Mainers access steady work, reconnect with their communities, and move forward with dignity and purpose. 

That’s why I strongly support LD 1911, also known as Maine’s Clean Slate Act. One in four adults in Maine has a record, according to The Clean Slate Initiative, and I’ve seen how decades-old, low-level records can make it extraordinarily difficult for people to rebuild their lives. Employers, landlords and universities routinely screen out people with records, creating a system that defines people by their worst moments rather than their potential. The status quo is neither fair nor acceptable.

Any reform should strengthen public safety, transparency and accountability — and LD 1911 does all three. Maine already allows certain records to be sealed through a petition-based process; LD 1911 modernizes that system by making eligibility determinations automatic and consistent.

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 9, 2024, only 18 motions were filed for record sealing, of which only six were granted. By replacing an opaque and inaccessible process with an updated, automated process combined with human oversight, LD 1911 strengthens transparency while preserving public access to court proceedings, sentencing outcomes and aggregate criminal legal data.

If passed, LD 1911 would streamline Maine’s existing record-sealing laws while maintaining strong public safety safeguards. An estimated 163,000 Mainers who have earned a second chance stand to benefit, and research shows that average quarterly wages rise by about 23% within a year of record sealing. We can open the door to good jobs, housing, education and stability — unlocking talent and opportunity that fuel the well-being of our workforce and communities.

Second chances aren’t abstract — they change real lives. My friend and colleague Joseph Jackson, executive director of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, is one of the most inspiring poets and champions for justice I’ve ever met — and he also lives with an old record from a past mistake. While incarcerated, he was selected as the first person in Maine to secure an MFA from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Creative Writing graduate program, and his powerful advocacy is a benefit to his community and our state. If Joseph had been excluded from that opportunity because of his record, Maine would have lost an essential voice.

LD 1911 does not erase records or shield them from the justice system. Sealed records remain fully accessible to courts, prosecutors and law enforcement for investigations, charging decisions and sentencing.

Just as importantly, journalists and the public retain access to court proceedings, sentencing outcomes and aggregate criminal legal data — the information needed to report on trends, identify disparities and hold the system accountable. What changes is not transparency or public safety, but the ability of old records to impose permanent punishment on people who have already served their time. 

Additionally, public safety guardrails are built into the proposed Clean Slate law, including common-sense limitations on offenses that pose a risk to public safety, like violent crimes.

An old arrest or conviction record should not define a person’s potential, and it’s time for Maine’s laws to reflect that. LD 1911 strikes an intentional balance between public safety and Maine’s obligation to ensure that punishment ends when accountability has been met. My support for LD 1911 remains steadfast, and I strongly urge our legislators to vote in favor of it.