Thousands of criminal convictions for marijuana possession will be automatically expunged in Cook County, Illinois, through a partnership with tech nonprofit Code For America as the state prepares to legalize recreational use of the drug.
The collaboration between the county and the tech nonprofit will streamline the expungement process, helping the state atone for “the wrongs of the past,” Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said at a news conference Tuesday.
“As prosecutors who were part of the war on drugs, we were part of a larger ecosystem that believed that in the interest of public safety these were convictions that were necessary to gain,” she said. “Conviction relief is not only a critical part of righting the wrongs of the war on drugs, it is a recommitment and statement of our values—that a low-level marijuana conviction does not mean that someone is a threat to public safety.”
Under the state’s recreational marijuana legalization law, which takes effect in January, residents 21 and older can possess up to 30 grams of cannabis. Cook County’s partnership with Code For America will automate the expungement process for convictions involving less than that amount of marijuana.
People convicted for larger amounts (up to 500 grams) can petition to have the charge wiped from their records.
Prosecutors had previously worked to streamline expungement, cutting the processing time from 18 months to eight. But that didn’t solve the major problem with expungement—that a majority of people eligible to have their records cleared don’t take advantage of the oppor ..
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