The 400,000-member American Bar Association’s policy-making body, the House of Delegates, is scheduled to vote on the resolutions at the group’s national convention in San Francisco on Aug. 13 and 14. One proposal recommended by an ABA commission urges local, state and federal governments to seal the records of criminal cases in which convictions were not obtained.
“I believe people should be given a second chance, especially when those crimes were committed when a person was very young,” said state Rep. Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee), one of the bill’s co-sponsors. Other co-sponsors are Marlin Schneider (D-Wisconsin Rapids), Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee), and Annette Polly Williams (D-Milwaukee).
These arguments sound familiar to those of us who fought to make the Sex Offender Registries public. Everybody needs a second chance. However, the only way to predict the future is to measure past behavior.
We suggest that those legislative advocates for second chances demonstrate their commitment to the cause by hiring some of these individuals to babysit their children.
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