The Clean Slate program was founded in 1999 by late Public Defender Jeff Adachi, the legacy of whom both Hernandez and Sanchez said they were proud to continue in the Mission.
We can’t do it alone - it’s a community effort - that’s why we have these community partners so people can stay alive and free.” “We are dedicated to making sure people have the tools necessarily so they don’t go back to jail. “People are coming home, and people make mistakes,” said Hernandez, who is drawing on her own incarceration and re-entry experience. “The direction we’re moving is about reforming and stabilizing our community,” said Hernandez.īy partnering with entities like the San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project, UCSF Wraparound Project, Horizons Unlimited and the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, they seek to prevent and reduce incarceration, recidivism, and generational incarceration as well as facilitate parent-child visits during incarceration. The program can also help people reintegrate with their communities and families, said Johanna Hernandez, who chairs the Latino Task Force’s Re-entry and Violence Committee with Arturo Carillo and is the Alameda County Director of Re-entry at Five Keys Schools and Programs. With exceptions for “ patterns of conduct” related to domestic abuse, child abuse, and elder abuse charges, the program helps people with misdemeanor and felony convictions expunge or vacate criminal records to pursue citizenship, employment and education.
The start date has yet to be announced, but already Hub staff can assist individuals with accessing the Clean Slate application.Įventually, the partnership will expand to the Latino Task Force hubs in the Bayview and Excelsior.