A national movement to rethink crime and punishment is gaining a foothold in Minnesota, pushing the state toward policies that help ex-offenders rebuild their lives in an age of instant background checks and eternal Internet mug shots.
The most recent example is the "ban the box" legislation, passed earlier this year by a bipartisan coalition, which eliminates the criminal history checkoff box on most private sector job applications. The bill is just one in a series of small victories that have Democrats and Republicans working together to give felons a second chance.
"I think this is without any doubt the most bipartisan work getting done at the Capitol right now," said Sarah Walker, founder of the Second Chance Coalition, which is leading the charge.
Still on the agenda in Minnesota are proposals to permanently seal some old criminal records and to more quickly restore felons' right to vote. Big-name support for criminal justice reform comes from a Texas-based conservative group, "Right on Crime," which sports endorsements from the likes of Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist and seeks to promote personal responsibility and take a chunk out of the corrections monolith.
"All too often, once someone is labeled as a criminal, it follows them everywhere they go, regardless of what they do with their life after that," said first-term state Rep. Ray Dehn, DFL-Minneapolis, who has made such issues a priority.
Dehn, now 55, knows about being labeled. As a teenager he was addicted to drugs and in 1976, at 19, pleaded guilty to felony burglary. He served in the Hennepin County workhouse and went through treatment.
In 1982, Gov. Al Quie and the state Board of Pardons granted Dehn a "pardon extraordinary," which nullifies the conviction, purges the offender's record and relieves the recipient of having to disclose the conviction except in special legal circumstances. His slate essentially wiped clean, Dehn began studying architecture at the University of Minnesota and became active in Minneapolis neighborhood development. He says he has been "sober for 36 years." Now a design and sustainability consultant, Dehn was elected to the Minnesota House in 2012.
Dehn said he had "tons of advantages" that other ex-offenders do not. "My offense happened in the '70s, long before the Internet," he said. "And also, I'm white — being white gives me a huge advantage right from the get-go."