The city of San Francisco is automatically explunging 8,100 marijuana convictions using a computer program.
The city’s district attorney’s office said that the approach will help the city identify over 8,100 marijuana convictions that date back to 1975.
The move will make San Francisco the first county in the U.S. to automatically expunge marijuana convictions.
The office had already expunged the records of 1,230 residents, so the sum total of sealed convictions will be over 9,600.
“Prosecutors should act to address the inherent unfairness of penalizing people for activity that is no longer illegal,” district attorney George Gascón stated. “Using technology, we have been able to proactively bring greater racial equity and fairness to marijuana legalization in California. I am thrilled to see other counties and states following suit by offering similar relief in their communities. It’s the right thing to do.”
“The Clear My Record technology can automatically and securely evaluate eligibility for convictions by reading and interpreting conviction data,” according to a press release. “It can evaluate eligibility for thousands of convictions in just a few minutes.”
“Contact with the criminal justice system should not be a life sentence, so we’ve been working to reimagine the record clearance process,” Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive of Code for America, stated. “Our work asks how we can make government work better for the people it serves, and we are honored to partner with DA Gascón’s office to deliver relief to thousands who have been blocked from access to jobs, housing and other opportunities for so long.”
“This new approach, which is both innovative and common sense, changes the scale and speed of justice and has the potential to ignite change across the country,” she added.
