More North Carolinians are having their criminal records erased, perhaps spurred by more employers doing background checks in a tight job market, according to a newspaper's review.
The number of expungements granted each year has nearly tripled since 2000. In the past decade, more than 76,000 people once charged with a crime have been given a clean slate, the News & Observer of Raleigh reported.
The job market is driving people who wouldn't otherwise fret about a criminal charge to take action. With the availability of Internet records checks, keeping those indiscretions under wraps is becoming more difficult.
As more and more companies check criminal records to screen applicants, job seekers are finding themselves limited by past troubles such as underage-drinking charges collected in college or an old shoplifting charge.
"When jobs are scarce and firms are flooded with applications, they are looking for easy ways to screen people out," said John Quinterno, a labor expert with South by North Strategies in Chapel Hill. "Criminal record? Boom, you're out."
Now, people whose charges are dismissed or who are acquitted by a jury are automatically eligible for an expungement. Offenders younger than 18 convicted of a misdemeanor or those up to 20 convicted of certain alcohol-related offenses are also eligible.
Records are locked in a database accessible by a handful of top court officials. This month, Gov. Bev Perdue signed a bill by legislators relaxing restrictions on expungements, enabling people convicted of nonviolent felonies at ages 16 or 17 to apply.
A News & Observer analysis of the state criminal database shows differences in numbers of expungements and types of charges wiped clean in certain counties across the state. From 2007 to 2009, Wake County granted expungements to more defendants who were charged in those years than any other county in the state and three times the number approved in Mecklenburg, the state's largest county.
In those years, Wake judges granted expungements to 4,530 defendants charged in the same time frame. Over five weeks this spring, about 375 defendants applied in Wake.
Sen. Doug Berger, D-Youngsville, pressed for years to expand the expungement law to young offenders.
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