Prosecutors and courts often charge a premium for the ability to avoid or erase a criminal conviction. Defendants with means, who tend to be predominantly White, can often pay for a clean record. But the indigent who are unable to pay, and are disproportionately Black and Brown, are saddled with the stigma of a criminal record. Diversion and expungement are two popular reforms that were promulgated as ways to reduce the scale of the criminal legal system and mitigate the impact of mass criminalization. Diversion allows a defendant to earn dismissal of a charge by satisfying conditions set by the prosecutor or court, thereby avoiding conviction. Expungement seals or erases the defendant’s record of arrest or conviction. Some diversion and expungement programs are cost-free, but most are not. Yet a criminal record carries its own costs. A criminal record can limit where an individual can live, go to school, and whether they receive public benefits. As 93% of employers conduct background checks on job applicants, the inability to avoid a criminal record can create barriers to employment and the accumulation of wealth. Costly diversion and expungement programs further calcify race and class divides, contributing to the construction of a permanent underclass. This Article examines the promises and pitfalls of diversion and expungement as means to combat mass criminalization. These two mechanisms work in tandem to provide access to a “clean record,” but not enough attention has been paid to the dangers they present due to differential access to clean records based on financial means. This Article considers legal challenges to the current schemes and explains how requiring defendants to pay for a clean record enables courts and prosecutors to profit from the perpetuation of racial caste. Ultimately, this Article argues that the impacts of diversion and expungement programs are more modest than reformers claim, and that these programs need to be offered at no cost if they are to succeed in achieving the goal of reducing racial disparities in our criminal courts and in society at large.

Cite as: Amy F. Kimpel, Paying For a Clean Record, 112 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 439 (2022).

检察官和法院经常对避免或消除刑事定罪的能力收取额外费用。有钱的被告，往往主要是白人，通常可以为清白的记录买单。但是那些无力支付的贫困人口，尤其是黑人和棕色人种，背负着犯罪记录的耻辱。分流和消除是两项流行的改革措施，旨在缩小刑事法律体系的规模并减轻大规模刑事定罪的影响。转移允许被告通过满足检察官或法院设定的条件来撤销指控，从而避免定罪。删除封印或删除被告的逮捕或定罪记录。一些转移和消除计划是免费的，但大多数不是。然而，犯罪记录有其自身的成本。犯罪记录可以限制个人可以在哪里生活、上学以及他们是否获得公共福利。由于 93% 的雇主会对求职者进行背景调查，因此无法避免犯罪记录可能会给就业和财富积累造成障碍。代价高昂的转移和消除计划进一步加剧了种族和阶级鸿沟，有助于建立永久的下层阶级。本文探讨了将转移和删除作为打击大规模刑事定罪的手段的承诺和陷阱。这两种机制协同工作以提供对“干净记录”的访问，但由于基于财务手段的不同访问权限，它们所带来的危险并没有得到足够的重视。本文考虑了对当前计划的法律挑战，并解释了要求被告支付清白记录费用如何使法院和检察官能够从种族种姓的延续中获利。最后，本文认为，转移和消除计划的影响比改革者声称的要温和，如果这些计划要成功实现减少我们刑事法庭和整个社会。

引用为：Amy F. Kimpel，为干净的记录付出代价，112 J. Crim。L. & 犯罪学 439 (2022)。