Last night Connecticut Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont refused to pledge support for so-called "Clean Slate" legislation, if elected.
The legislation would require the automatic expungement of the criminal records of non-violent ex-offenders who have stayed out of trouble for three to five years after parole.
“When you say automatically, I think of the nature of some crimes, say sex crimes, where I think you ought to be very careful about what is there and what people can do.”
Unaffiliated candidate Oz Griebel pledged support for such legislation.
“We also want to make sure we are doing everything we can to prevent anybody from being incarcerated. So we have to talk about education because we all know if a person is not reading at grade level by third grade or fourth grade, the odds of that person being incarcerated goes up exponentially.”
Lamont and Griebel answered questions in front of an audience of about 700 at a candidate’s forum in Bridgeport last night. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski declined to take part.
The forum was put together by Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut, an interdenominational coalition of churches, synagogues, mosques and civic organizations.