Senate Bill 170
STANDARDIZING THE EXPUNGEMENT PROCESS FOR JUVENILE RECORDS
Senate Bill 170 Bill Information
SB 170 PN 160 Senate Fiscal Note | House Fiscal Note
Enacted as Act 108 of 2024
Description: SB 170 would provide for expungement of juvenile records under certain circumstances and to require a Chief Juvenile Probation Officer to notify the court of a juvenile’s eligibility for the expungement.
PA Justice Alliance Member Positions & Feedback
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Establishing a mechanism to expunge certain juvenile records and assigning a court officer to be responsible for tracking expungement eligibility would ensure that young people who have completed their obligations to the court are not held back from successful transition into adulthood due to prior involvement in the juvenile justice system.
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Email to Senate: Amistad Law Project supports SB 170 (PN 160). It is critical that our justice-impacted citizens, who are working hard to turn around their lives, are able to have a fresh start and by extension a greater chance of success. This is even more true for young people who have a demonstrably higher capacity for rehabilitation. The same factors that lead young people whose brains are still developing to be more susceptible to outside influences also make them more susceptible to efforts at rehabilitation. More accurately stated “the same immaturities that lead to sensation seeking and risk-taking behavior also support learning, suggesting that adolescents are more amenable to rehabilitation.”
The systems we create must strive to make sure that young people who were involved in the juvenile justice system do not fall through the cracks. Assigning a court officer to be responsible for tracking expungement eligibility for young people who have completed their court obligations is a good common sense measure that will help young people who are turning around their lives.
Much more needs to be done on this issue to get our Commonwealth to a place where we ‘treat kids as kids’ in the context of the criminal legal system. For instance, it is our position that expungements should be automatic and automated. However, SB 170 is a good step in the right direction and we support it.
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Email to Senate (9/17/2024): This bill is based on a recommendation of the PA Juvenile Justice Task Force and represents an important step toward improving outcomes for children and communities.
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We believe PA should be on track with almost every other state. It should not be the intention or reality that a person’s juvenile record follows them into adulthood. We should have a clear process for expungement.
If we can enact clean slate laws and expungement processes for adults, then we should make sure young people have the same protections. As an interfaith institution, we believe it would be immoral to saddle young people with mistakes we protect adults from.
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PDAP supports expansion of juvenile expungement and the reduction of the time limits before children can seek expungement, as laid out in SB 170. We also applaud the inclusion of expungement opportunities for felonies and other serious misdemeanors.
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Email to Senate: There is much more work that needs to be done to address the core problems in our youth justice system that is not contemplated by this bill. But this bill is a good first step toward getting more juvenile records expunged in a timely manner. We would prefer that these expungements be automatic, and apply more quickly, because of the impediments that a record can have on a young person's housing, employment, and education, but this bill will be a useful improvement to the current system.
