Government working on law to wipe criminal records

Four years after the government promised legislation to wipe certain offences from criminal records, Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs (AGLA) Renuka Sagramsingh-Sooklal says the AG's office is still working on it.

The Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) bill will allow minor convictions to be expunged from a person's criminal record if they are not convicted of a serious offence during a set rehabilitation period.

The bill was first outlined in a letter to the speaker of the house dated January 13, 2021, by then-attorney general Faris Al-Rawi.

Al-Rawi was responding to recommendations and comments in the fourteenth report of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration on an inquiry into the challenges on prisoner re-entry into society and prisoner reintegration services.

The report recommended the development of legislative amendments “to facilitate the expunging of records of ex-prisoners for certain types of offences after an allotted period of time has elapsed.”

In response Al-Rawi said AGLA was “currently in the developmental stages of two critical pieces of legislation,” and also cited the Parole bill.

Speaking at the Justice in Action Youth Forum hosted by Youth Inspiration TT on February 20 at the Government Campus Plaza Auditorium, Sagramsingh-Sooklal outlined the importance of the bill.

She did not, however, say when the legislation will be brought to the Parliament.

She said people convicted of minor offences were being denied jobs as many employers list a certificate of character (CoC) as a necessary job application document and those convictions are listed on the CoC.

“You drive under the influence, plead guilty and it's now on your record. Sometimes that may happen when you're 18. But now you're 30, 40, 50, something-years-old and you're still carrying that record with you.”

Sagramsingh-Sooklal said the Criminal Records Rehabilitation Offenders Bill 2025 will make it easier for people to have their records expunged if they do not re-offend.

“Instead of the regular process where you have to go to the mercy committee and make an application to the President to hand to the committee to have your record cleaned, this bill intends to deal with certain classes of offences.

“After a certain number of years have passed and you're not a re-offender, it will of course take into consideration the whole picture, and it will deal with the issue of that record.”

Al-Rawi’s letter in 2021 explained after a set rehabilitation period, a conviction resulting in a non-custodial or a custodial sentence of not more than 36 months must be treated as a spent conviction, provided no other offences were committed during the rehabilitation period.

Director of legal services at the Equal Opportunities Commission Harran Ramkaransingh said, while no one has yet tested the law, he is unsure whether people can claim to be discriminated against based on their conviction status.

He said while other countries provide protection from discrimination based on conviction status, apart from a possible challenge under discrimination against origin, TT has no such law.

“If you go to apply for a job and the person says, ‘I'm not going to hire you because of your conviction status,’ we're not sure in TT whether or not a person can launch a complaint with us.”

Citing legislation in other countries similar to the proposed bill, Ramkaransingh said some institutions are “even more colonial” in their attitudes toward ex-convicts.

“A person who has been convicted of an offence cannot get a job in the public service. They will not be considered by the Public Service Commission.

"If you were to apply for a US visa and you have something as simple as a drunk driving conviction, then you're going to have challenges getting that visa."

He said these attitudes pointed to systemic issues in criminal justice reform.

“It's easy to say that we want to reintegrate convicts into society but then you're facing these systemic barriers.”