Jamaica’s Justice Minister Delroy Chuck says the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Board has approved 1,200 applications from more than two thousand people seeking to have their criminal records expunged.
Chuck told Parliament that 2,322 applications had been received last year.
“When people apply, they expect that within days or weeks, it will be expunged. That is not how it works. When persons apply, the first thing that is done is that a report has to be requested from the Criminal Records Office, and because of the burden on the Criminal Records Office, the likelihood of getting back the criminal records report within six months is really very unlikely,” he said.
However, he told legislators that improvements have been realized from the Criminal Records Office over the last few months and that the expungement of criminal records continues to be one of the most demanded services offered by the Ministry of Justice.
“Expungement is an area that the Ministry of Justice comes under a lot of complaints and [receives] a lot of applications,” he said, noting that a submission will be made to Cabinet to look at the widening of the expungement jurisdiction.
Chuck said following Cabinet’s deliberation, it is hoped that a Bill will be brought to Parliament in this fiscal year to widen the categories or to ensure that persons who have been rehabilitated can get their matters expunged.
“We refuse a lot of applications. There are persons who have been found guilty for serious crimes but they, having served their sentence, have returned to the community. They have lived fairly upright lives, and because the Third Schedule is quite restrictive, they cannot get expungement and many of them, even though they appeal to the Minister, the Minister is reluctant to grant any appeal where the offence is of a serious nature, notwithstanding that they have been good upright citizens for 10 [or] 15 years,” he said.
Expungement involves the formal removal of a conviction from an individual’s criminal/police record after a specific period of time has elapsed and after certain requirements have been met.
To qualify for expungement, the offence in question must be one that attracts a non-custodial sentence or sentence of imprisonment not exceeding five years and that the person in question must also not have had any other convictions during a specified period of time referred to as the ‘Rehabilitation Period’.
Offences such as the import and export of narcotics such as cocaine and marijuana; murder, rape and some offences under the Malicious Destruction of Property Act, including arson, cannot be expunged under the current law.
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