Monday, March 14, 2005
 
What Good Is a Criminal Record?

San Francisco has determined that having convictions on your record might make people think less of you. So they're all in favor of removing criminal convictions:
    A young woman arrested for prostitution shared a harrowing tale of leaving her suburban home in the Bay Area and working for a sadistic pimp.

    She escaped when her pimp was sent to prison. Now she is back with her family, working part-time and attending college. The poised and articulate 23- year-old wants her criminal past cleared so she can enter the field of her dreams: nursing.

    A San Francisco program called Clean Slate may be the answer.

    Using a little-known state law, the Clean Slate program run by the San Francisco public defender's office got more than 1,500 criminal cases cleared last year. Another 2,227 are being processed.

    The cleared cases -- all committed in San Francisco -- range from lesser charges such as prostitution and petty theft to more serious offenses including attempted rape, drug dealing, assault and vehicular manslaughter.
No harm, no foul. Harm? Eh, no foul either.


 
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."