OPPOSE SB 1262 – Protect the privacy of formerly incarcerated people

What is this bill about?

SB 1262 (Bradford) would allow anyone in the general public to do an online search of criminal cases by filtering results based on an individual’s date of birth or driver’s license number, or both.

How does it align with yli’s values?

IT DOESN’T!! The bill makes one’s criminal history permanently available to everyone online with no regard for the interests of formerly incarcerated or convicted people. SB 1262 would undo last year’s ruling in All of Us Or None–Riverside Chapter vs Hamrick, which protected the privacy of people with criminal records by making it harder and more costly for unauthorized individuals to access and misuse those records.

Black, Brown, and Indigenous young people – our youth – bear the brunt of our state’s harmful youth “justice” system. This system is not “broken” – from its inception, it was built to cage and criminalize youth of color. In this era of mass incarceration and collateral consequences, the Hamrick Court’s ruling rightly asks us how much we are willing to pay for our biases against formerly-incarcerated or convicted people. When a commercial background check costs more and takes longer, we would really have to believe in its utility to buy and use it.

What is yli doing about it?

We have just submitted a letter urging Governor Newsom to veto this bill, and we are voicing our concerns on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Who else rejects this bill?

  • Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
  • All of Us or None
  • Root & Rebound
  • The Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership
  • National Association of Social Workers
  • Initiate Justice
  • Legal Aid at Work
  • National Employment Law Project
  • Western Center on Law & Poverty
  • A New Way of Life
  • Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto
  • CURB
  • Californians for Safety and Justice
  • Oakland Privacy
  • Homies Unidos
  • Immigrant Defense Advocates
  • Rubicon Programs
  • Center for Employment Opportunities
  • Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
  • Mental Health Advocacy Services
  • East Bay Community Law Center
  • Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice

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