There has been a sharp increase in the number of  Jamaicans who have been successful in getting their criminal records expunged.

According to the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2021, the Criminal, Civil and Family Law Unit of the Ministry of Justice processed 1,130 expungement applications last year.

 

Among those 769 applications were approved by the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of  Offenders) Board. 

 

This represented a 95.7 per cent increase in approvals compared to 2020. 

 

The report says the higher number of  approvals was due to the unit again operating at pre-pandemic levels, as approvals declined by 62.4 per cent in 2020.  

 

Expungement means having a conviction removed from one's criminal or police record after a specific period of  time has elapsed and certain requirements have been met.

 

In order to qualify for expungement, two essential conditions must be satisfied.

 

The offence must be one which attracts a non-custodial sentence or imprisonment not exceeding five years and the applicant must not have had any other conviction during a specified period of  time referred to as the rehabilitation period.