More than 30 million people in the US are eligible to have their arrest and conviction records cleared — but most people who qualify either can’t afford it or simply don’t know it’s an option. In this gripping talk, second chance advocate and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Sheena Meade makes the case for “clean slate” laws that streamline this complicated process, increasing access to work, housing and education opportunities for millions of people. Learn how her team at the Clean Slate Initiative has already helped pass these laws in six US states and how they’re now working to unlock record clearance for millions more, so everyone can get a true shot at becoming their best selves.
This ambitious plan is a part of the Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change. Learn more at .
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#TED #TEDTalks #justice
Considering Constantine
May 10, 2023 at 1:21 pm
“It enabled me to turn my pain into purpose. It enabled me to be able to walk into a room and be seen, not as a damaged goods, but as untapped potential.”
This is a great speech for what I believe could be one of the most influential policy changes in our country.
Austin Denotter
May 10, 2023 at 1:58 pm
Please let actions speak louder than words
Sir Chadius Maximus III
May 10, 2023 at 1:24 pm
No. There is a culture problem. Everyone knows what it is.
michelle owens
May 10, 2023 at 1:26 pm
That’s Awesome 👏
God Bless this Women and Everyone who stands with her. ❤
Yoga Of Health
May 10, 2023 at 1:26 pm
Mistakes are part of life.
We LEARN through making mistakes.
We should always just try to make sure our mistakes don’t cause harm to others though. I mean EVERYONE, we need to consider, not just other people, but Animals and Insects too.
Steve Romig
May 10, 2023 at 5:16 pm
No one makes mistakes on purpose. So how do you know, before you’ve made a mistake, if that mistake is going to hurt someone? No one who commits a robbery refers to it as a mistake.
Don Fatale
May 10, 2023 at 1:27 pm
Thumbs up from me. Good people should not be denied the chance to turn it around.
propius ad veritatum Dei
May 10, 2023 at 1:38 pm
I genuinely believe most (but not all) of the people who make their way into positions of judicial power sadistically enjoy the suffering they get to impose on others. Those in the cluster B personality group are the only types of people deranged enough to willfully enforce unjustified punishment like this for years on end to begin with…
Make Racists Afraid Again
May 10, 2023 at 1:48 pm
This should simply be baked into the system.
Automatic.
Steve Romig
May 10, 2023 at 5:29 pm
It should happen as soon as you’ve done your time.
Rooted Dwellings Design
May 10, 2023 at 1:51 pm
I completely understand that people are scared of those in society who are destined to commit crimes their whole lives.. but the innocent good hearted people get screwed over in this system… If this reform helps those people i believe we should try it! Who knows maybe the oppressed communities would change if they had hope! Maybe not, and we will never get rid of habitual offenders. I believe 100% that when you do the crime and pay the time you should be free of that burden (some terrible crimes still need to show up in persons background checks) our justice system is God awful and I live in OKC my State of Oklahoma is terrible at rehabilitation of troubled persons.
Steve Romig
May 10, 2023 at 5:26 pm
Habitual criminals are created by the system. If you’re out of jail with no other prospects you still have to survive, eat, find shelter and healthcare. If your only option for survival is criminal activity the first law is survival.
Your prison system is run by private companies. That’s why, with a population of 340 million people, compared to the world’s population of 8 billion, you have 25% of the worlds prison population.
Anyone with half a brain knows there’s something wrong with that.
The Mighty Zim
May 10, 2023 at 2:00 pm
Four kids and bouncing checks? No wonder we need “background checks”?
Her excuses were like Charlie Brown….”wah wah wah”
Steve Romig
May 10, 2023 at 6:01 pm
What’s your excuse? How do you justify being such an ignoramus?
Tony Pelliccio
May 10, 2023 at 2:16 pm
Two things I learned when i worked for the state attorney general. One is diversion and expungement.
Peter Ripson
May 10, 2023 at 2:50 pm
Except perhaps for rape and murder, no other crimes should come with a mandatory life sentence, especially if someone has paid their debt to society. In America, there is such a fervor for revenge that most have forgotten all the horrible things most of have done in their lives but were never “caught” for. I don’t know why people even worry about most of those with “records”. It’s the ones who’ve never been found out that keep me up at night. Think that is a ridiculous stance? Look at the majority of mass killers today. Most have no record at all.
Elektric Skeptic
May 10, 2023 at 3:01 pm
Brilliant❤❤❤❤
Dennis
May 10, 2023 at 3:09 pm
Getting arrested and thrown in jail over a $87 bounced check is WILD! And the system adds expenses to people already financially struggling. This is by design.
Ellis Cofield
May 10, 2023 at 8:49 pm
Yeah, she’s black. If she wasn’t, it wouldn’t have happened to her.
Freedom24
May 11, 2023 at 7:44 am
@Ellis Cofield Exactly! 🤬
QashMaz
May 11, 2023 at 12:38 pm
That is insane!
And I’ve never understood the logic behind putting on more fines on people already struggling to pay debt.
TheVigilante2000
May 10, 2023 at 3:37 pm
I have a solution, don’t do crime!!
chas in lakewood
May 10, 2023 at 5:07 pm
Wonderful. Tell that to corporations that foul your air and water. They’ll never see the inside of a cell.
Simple as that. Right?
Steve Romig
May 10, 2023 at 5:38 pm
So inadvertently having a cheque bounce is a crime? I suppose you’ve never made a similar mistake? Criminality is encouraged and baked into your system because private companies profit from it.
The USA has 25% of the worlds prison population because, when you leave prison or you’ve inadvertently committed a slight misdemeanour, you can’t get housing or a job or Medicaid so the only thing you can do to survive is commit criminal acts.
Any halfwit could figure that out.
Hope in the unseen
May 13, 2023 at 2:56 pm
Well people will. That doesn’t mean people don’t deserve second chances because they do
AKIRA
May 10, 2023 at 4:04 pm
Politicians and corporate billionaires have a lifetime of 2nd chances.
Aerium Four
May 10, 2023 at 4:06 pm
Considering many US states are just letting people go for most crimes after arrest, this seems a little redundant.
Steve Romig
May 10, 2023 at 5:41 pm
Are they? So why does the USA have 25% of the worlds prison population?
Sheila Penney
May 10, 2023 at 7:33 pm
Ever heard of ” Cash Bail?” It is a discriminatory practice that effects our brown and black communities. Staying in jail for minor offenses waiting on a court date, because they can not afford to pay bail. Waste of space in our already overcrowded jails .
J ateabug
May 10, 2023 at 4:13 pm
Where is the line between forgivable and unforgivable crimes? When do we forgive a Murderer, a drug dealer, or a Child Molester? We are releasing these people everyday from our Prisons because they served their sentences and now, like the woman in this presentation, they can’t get a job, go to school, rent an apartment, qualify for a loan, or even live in certain areas.
I am all for forgiveness, but it has to apply to everyone, or it is worthless. They say you shouldn’t let your past define you, but for “anyone” convicted of a “Any” crime, society remembers you; and now you have that as an obstacle as well.
Nothing Really Matters
May 10, 2023 at 4:54 pm
The USA has 4% of the global population and 20% of all prisoners on earth.
Why?
Read the 13th Amendment “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”.
The USA didn’t abolish slavery completely. It just put as many black people in prison as it could to replace the slave population with slave labour camps. 80% of cotton in the USA is still picked by black men in chains.
America refers to such policies as slave labour camps in China but calls it “justice” in the USA.
How does the USA keep the population compliant? Well, the UK and Germany have populations o 70 and 80 million but police only kill one or two citizens a year on average. The USA has five times the population but police shoot dead over 1200 civilians every single year. Executed without trial by the militarized police.
Not my idea of the “land of the free”.
chas in lakewood
May 10, 2023 at 5:03 pm
Sometimes the threat of a lifelong smudge on your record can be a deterrent. I’ve hammered it into my kid.
But… if conditions create that smudge… then damned sure make a path for an inspired citizen.
Sareaesque
May 11, 2023 at 5:35 am
The problem is, that ‘smudge’ can prevent someone from doing better.
Say like the example in the video, you get into financial trouble because of circumstances you can’t control, you get loaded with fines and fees which you can’t pay, that smudge gets bigger, maybe makes it hard to find the job you need to get out of your financial situation, allows landlords to discriminate against you putting more strain on your financial situation, or prevents you getting a better education which would allow you better job opportunities.
Or like a few of the other comments, drug convictions, when being caught with a small bag of weed 30 years ago is still on your record automatically making certain paths off limits even if that was your only conviction. Or someone who is an addict and desperately wants to get clean but keeps being denied opportunities that would allow them to become self-sufficient enough.
Jeffrey Willett
May 10, 2023 at 5:10 pm
Do you think they really come arrest someone for the first time you write a bad check? I’m thinking it may have been a little more then is set in this narrative. Some people tell a story differently.
Steve Romig
May 10, 2023 at 5:44 pm
Of course they do if you’re black. In the USA there’s a prison population of 2 million. Last time I looked over 90% of them were black.
Brandon Tabin
May 10, 2023 at 6:40 pm
Too many criminals get too many second chances as it is, and third chances, and fourth… and fifth, ad infinitum…
Sheila Penney
May 10, 2023 at 7:30 pm
You totally missed her point. Or did you even watch the entire video?
Denise Corbisiero
May 10, 2023 at 6:54 pm
I can relate with a drug charge from 30 yrs ago, I am immediately disqualified from certain things. I am in Florida. Would love to know if DeSantis passed this and would love to help others. Great cause!!!
Larry C
May 10, 2023 at 8:26 pm
I’m Shocked! Shocked! that someone was arrested for stealing.
Larry C
May 10, 2023 at 8:27 pm
How many times had you written bad checks?
Toni
May 10, 2023 at 10:59 pm
I was arrested in Australia when I twnty-four. I’m now seventy one and I’ve never heard another word about it. No one has ever asked me about it, not one word. It’s like it never happened. What a difference. You shouldn’t have that slap across your face. It’s not fair.
Toni
May 10, 2023 at 11:07 pm
You shouldn’t be paying through the nose to have an honest name. That’s not the law, that’s dishonest.
m
May 10, 2023 at 11:33 pm
The current US justice system is giving 5th and 6th chances to violent criminals who keep offending. Second chance is great, but never a 3rd chance.
555Trout
May 11, 2023 at 1:36 am
As a former employer I would be OUTRAGED if I couldn’t know about potential employees’ criminality!
This is utterly ridiculous!!!
Kamila Witusik
May 11, 2023 at 4:03 am
What an emotional talk, absolutely ridiculous what is going on in the US. In Poland venting is illegal to not let your record influence your chances of getting a job – that would be not inclusive.
Freedom24
May 11, 2023 at 7:48 am
What happened to this woman is disgraceful. Our country has moved back in time once again. VOTE BLUE!
The Big Dawg
May 12, 2023 at 11:55 am
Nah. I don’t vote along party lines and nobody should. You should vote for whomever aligns with your views best regardless of party.
Juan Restrepo
May 12, 2023 at 11:38 pm
@The Big Dawg – Republicans don’t align with my views because they want to keep people in jail only so they can continue to make profits for their sponsors, CEOs of companies that operate jails and contractors like GEO Group, disgusting! VOTE BLUE
Joe Stocker
May 11, 2023 at 8:29 am
What an incredibly biased opinion. I bet this idiot is for reparations as well
propius ad veritatum Dei
May 11, 2023 at 3:54 pm
Why is the world like this?…
B umblo
May 11, 2023 at 4:03 pm
Don’t understand the amount of dislikes on this video it’s ridiculous