How can an offender keep other persons from finding out about his or her prior conviction record in with the intent of avoiding collateral consequences?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Expungement (erasing or destroying a record) and sealing (closing an existing record) are two ways to limit public availability to arrest records and conviction records. When discussing expungement and the act of sealing, a distinction must be made between arrest records and court records that did not lead to conviction versus court records of conviction. The arrest records are defined and handled by law enforcement officers according to the number of police contacts that resulted in an arrest, regardless of case outcome (e.g., dismissal, diversion, plea of guilty, trial, etc.). A record of conviction is one in which the defendant pled guilty or was found guilty and was formally sentenced by the court. Each state deals with expunging and sealing of arrest and conviction records differently. Some jurisdictions use the terms interchangeably, so it is sometimes confusing.
Forty states allow people to expunge or seal arrest records, and if the applicant is successful, 30 of those same states also allow the denial that these arrest records exist. Less than half of states allow expungement for convictions, however. For felony offenses, one source reports that 21 states that have expungement procedures (Legal Action Center, 2004, p. 6), whereas another source says 26 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004). However, in all but 10 of these states, even if the record is expunged, the information is still accessible to law enforcement, courts, and other government agencies.
A significant issue is the easy access to criminal records on the Internet. Defendants in some jurisdictions who have had their convictions expunged complain that evidence of the offense still appears (e.g., the offense appears with no decision or verdict, leaving employers to question it). Extra steps may need to be taken by the defendant to ensure that the expunged information is not disclosed in public databases. In some states, this may require an additional step known in some areas as sealing or a petition for nondisclosure. A petition for nondisclosure is a court order prohibiting public disclosure of the defendant's criminal history record. Other states call this sealing of records, which is a practice in some states whereby a person's criminal record is not destroyed, but can no longer be examined except by court order or by law enforcement or other government officials (Black's Law Dictionary, 1991, p. 938). It differs from expungement in that in expungement the record is erased, whereas in sealing specifically defined records are closed. Sealing of records usually applies to juvenile proceedings or adult diversion proceedings that have not resulted in a conviction.
Sealed records restrict everyone (including the person who wants the records sealed) from public access, and the person is not obligated to disclose any information to any employer, governmental agency, or any official. Legally, the applicant who has his or her records sealed can say no such records exist. Note that sealed records are retained and not physically destroyed. The only way sealed records can be examined is if the original applicant or a prosecutor files a court order and that order is granted by the court to unseal the record if public interest outweighs the original justification to seal.