Emanuel takes victory lap for bill expunging juvenile records

In an apparent attempt to bolster his plummeting popularity among African-American voters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel took a bow Monday for the pivotal role he played in passing legislation that would automatically expunge juvenile records if no charges are filed.

At a stifling City Hall news conference that may well have violated the fire code, Emanuel was joined by so many black elected officials, community leaders and young people, there wasn’t enough room for all of them on the podium.

State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, ran the first leg of the victory lap by thanking Emanuel for the powerful push that helped land the bill on Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk.

“For years, we’ve been trying get the Legislature to recognize that young people who may have been arrested — many times just suspected of committing a crime and not having done it and sometimes may have done something minor — need a fresh start when they reach the age of majority,” Raoul said.

“Legislation has stalled. Sometimes it requires a push from outside of the Legislature for things to happen within the Legislature. That’s the push that we received from our Mayor Rahm Emanuel.”

State Rep. Art Turner, D-Chicago, said the bill was a “very difficult lift” during the just-concluded spring session.

“I was very happy that Mayor Emanuel took an interest in this group and bringing them along,” Turner said.

“In the midst of everything else we’re dealing with in Chicago around youth and violence, it’s nice to pass a piece of legislation that will have an immediate impact on the lives of students and kids moving into adulthood who are looking for opportunities in housing, in school and jobs.”

Then it was Emanuel’s turn to tout his political guts.

“If it was popular, somebody else would have done it. This actually was dormant … for years. Just sitting there. Nobody wanted to take it because it was politically unpalpable. This wasn’t in the palpable, really exciting thing to do because, what you’re saying is, `We’re gonna clear people’s records who got arrested.’ Nobody for political reasons wanted to touch that,” the mayor said.

“This is giving kids a fresh start and a way, in my view, of getting a chance at a job and, most importantly, a college education because then, they can be really productive and do something.”

The bill awaiting Quinn’s signature is aimed at making certain that teenage mistakes don’t haunt young people into adulthood — and stand in the way of them getting a job or scholarship.

Currently, anyone who was arrested as a youth but not charged must go through the same expungement process as someone who was convicted.

They must pay a one-time fee of $60 and file a petition to expunge each arrest at a cost of $64 each. They also must attend a court hearing and inform the arresting police departments and the Illinois State Police of the expungement. Only 400 of more than 21,000 juveniles arrested in Illinois last year managed to clear their records.

That stigma will now be removed.

Juvenile arrest records that do not trigger formal criminal charges would be automatically wiped clean once the offender turns 18, provided at least six months has passed since the date of the arrest with no other arrests.

The only exceptions would be arrests for a Class 2 or higher felony sex offenses.

The expunged records would be sealed to everyone except for police agencies to use in screening job applicants. Prosecutors also would have access to those records to make charging decisions and sentencing recommendations in cases in which someone is charged with a similar crime as an adult.

Emanuel has alienated African-American voters who helped put him in office after instigating Chicago’s first teachers strike in 25 years, closing 50 public schools, opening new charter schools and unveiling plans to build new schools and school additions, with the educational largesse heavily concentrated on the North Side.

That includes a $14 million addition to Walter Payton College Prep and a new, $60 million selective enrollment high school nearby named after President Barack Obama, whose 2011 endorsement of his former White House chief of staff sealed the deal with black voters.

The political fallout of those actions and persistent crime showed in the Sun-Times poll.

The mayor got just 8 percent support from African Americans surveyed, barely above the 3 percent registered by Ald. Bob Fioretti (2^nd) and former Ald. Robert Shaw (9^th). County Board President Toni Preckwinkle got 35 percent. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis scored 16 percent.