Effron “Donnie” Veal was 24 years old when he was convicted in 1996 for shooting a man in the legs in San Jose and sentenced to 34 years in prison. He spent the next 23 years behind bars but was granted early release in 2019 at the age of 47 as part of California’s “85% rule,” which allows inmates with good behavior to be considered for release after serving the majority of their sentence. He re-entered society with little education, job history or familiarity with 21st-century technology. He told Northeastern Global News (NGN) that he wanted to hit “a master reset button” and eliminate parts of his record that could be used as barriers to employment and housing. “This is huge to restoring a person’s confidence and ability to reintegrate,” he said.
For many, a sealed record can be the difference between gaining fair access to employment or housing opportunities and remaining trapped in what Sarah Lageson, associate professor of criminal justice and law at Northeastern University, calls the “collateral consequences” of a past arrest or conviction. “It’s really just a legal document that a person doesn’t really have any control over shaping, so it’s not even about the facts,” Lageson said. “It also impacts people’s ability and feeling that they can volunteer, or they can spend time with their kids on school trips.”
