This Saturday, D.C. representative Oye Owolewa, alongside a local community and legal aid groups, will host a clinic to help individuals seal or expunge their criminal records.

Representatives from Time for Change, a D.C.-area agency that helps individuals find employment following periods of homelessness or incarceration, and Christian Legal Aid of Washington D.C. will lead a “Know Your Rights” workshop. Afterward, lawyers will be available for one-on-one consultations with residents, reviewing their records and assisting with next steps in expunging or sealing. The event is free and open to anyone; individuals can register here. The clinic will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Time for Change center in Ward 8.

“Often times, as elected officials and leaders, we tend to take [people] to us,” Owolewa said in an interview. “And I think it’s very important to reach people where they’re at.”

Criminal records stand as barriers to housing and employment, yet sealing and expunging processes are unwieldy, confusing, and time-consuming. D.C. has some of the narrowest expungement scopes in the U.S.; in the District, only non-felony charges can be sealed from one’s record. (The only felony-charge that’s eligible for relief is the felony failure to appear.) Sealing, unlike expungement, does not completely erase a record. If a record is sealed, it still “exists” but can only be accessed with court approval. Most cases in the District are sealed as opposed to expunged — with only simple possession of drug cases eligible for complete erasure.

Last year the D.C. Council passed The Second Chance Amendment Act of 2021, which would drastically expand record sealing eligibility and simplify the process. The bill — currently awaiting Mayor Muriel Bowser’s approval — would order automatic expungement of all records related to offenses that have since been decriminalized or legalized and automatic sealing of arrests or charges that did not result in a convinction. According to the Council for Court Excellence, one in eight D.C. residents has had a criminal conviction, and many more have been arrested or charged with crimes that never ended in a conviction.

“I see this as an opportunity for people to take their lives back,” Owolewa said. “We’re talking about reducing barriers by removing records or sealing parts of our records.”

Owolewa said he plans to host another clinic in February in Ward 7, with the goal of making it a monthly series. Around the region, other organizations — and even a commonwealth’s attorney — have staged similar events in the past. Arlington County’s top prosectuor and Circuit Court clerk held an expungement clinic in December, a first for the county.  Prince William County has hosted them, and Maryland Legal Aid holds monthly events with access to free attorneys, paralegals, and law students for help navigating the record-sealing process.

This post has been corrected to note that the clinic is taking place at the Time for Change center.