Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Utah Jazz partnered with organizations to help expunge criminal records at an event.
- Hisrael Carranza shared his journey from gang involvement to becoming a lawyer.
- Utah's "clean slate law" aids in automatic expungement for low-level offenses.
SALT LAKE CITY — A series of unfortunate events in his teenage years — his sister dying in a car accident, his parents separating, being bullied at school — left Hisrael "Izzy" Carranza not knowing how to cope.
In a search for belonging, he ended up joining a gang and using drugs. He was arrested for the first time as an adult at age 19. His criminal record included several misdemeanors and a felony for drug possession.
"Honestly, I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I felt trapped in the negative cycle as is really common in the area where I grew up," he said of his Ogden neighborhood.
Sitting in jail, Carranza could see only two outcomes: death or a life of incarceration.
"I didn't know how, but I knew that I needed to change. Deciding to change is not easy. Sometimes doing the right thing is a lot harder. But I also knew that if I stayed the same, I was going to struggle anyway. So the choice was simple for me. I could either struggle to do something right with my life or I could struggle for nothing," he said.
Carranza enrolled in college, earning a bachelor's degree at Weber State University and a law degree from Gonzaga University in 2021. He clerked at the Washington State Supreme Court.
Returning to Utah, the 37-year-old married father of four knew his criminal record would be a barrier to obtaining a license to practice law in the state. That's when he found Rasa Legal, a fledgling public benefit corporation that helps people expunge their records.
In just under a year, Carranza was clear of his misdemeanors and felony.
"It's hard to capture what it means to me, but I can tell you this much: I now feel free, finally. I feel confident. I feel like my record results now reflect the person I am today and not the mistakes I made a long time ago," he said.
Carranza said he just learned that he's been admitted to the Utah Bar. He intends to focus on immigration law and cases for people who are in the same situation he found himself in.
Carranza shared his story Wednesday at the Expungement Summit sponsored by the SEG Foundation, National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, Rasa Legal and Clean Slate Utah. Smith Entertainment Group, which owns the Utah Jazz and Utah Hockey Club, created the nonprofit foundation. Nearly 1,500 people signed up to explore with 100 volunteer attorneys whether they're eligible to have their criminal records erased. The line to get into the arena stretched around the block.
James Cadogan, coalition executive director, said the event believes in people, and the group's job is to manifest hope and invest in people.
The Utah Jazz were the first NBA team to partner with the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition on an expungement event in 2023. About 400 people showed up, 100 of whom were able to have their records cleared.
Second chances
Ashley Smith, Smith Entertainment Group co-founder, said the expungement event aligns with the company's mission to do good, provide opportunities for growth and help young people. Removing a criminal record, she said, has a ripple effect on families, children and communities.
"My personal experience is just that I've been forgiven and given second chances a million times in my life. I'm so thankful for the version of myself that I am today because forgive and move on, and we get to grow ,and we get to be better, and we get to improve," she told the Deseret News.
"It's just I'm thankful every time somebody forgives me for a mishap, so it's very personal to me that we help each other in that way, and we champion each other. ... I don't think we just believe in second chances. I think we create them in Utah," she said.
About one-quarter of Utahns of every race, gender, educational achievement and economic status have a criminal record, according to Destiny Garcia, executive director of Clean Slate Utah, an organization that helps people expunge their records.
A criminal record, even one with a decades-old misdemeanor or arrest that never led to a conviction, can prevent a person from getting a job, housing, education, professional license or even a loan.
"No one should be defined by their past. And mistakes should never be the permanent barrier to success. They also should never be a life sentence to poverty," Garcia said. "Expungement is more than just clearing records. It's about giving people back their human dignity."
Clean slate laws
Utah was the second state in the country to pass a "clean slate law," which provides automatic expungement for certain low-level misdemeanors and felonies after a specified period of time. A dozen states now have such laws.
Most states have a petition-based expungement process through the court system, but it's typically so complicated and costly that an estimated 90% of people who are eligible for relief never make it through the paperwork. Two law professors at the University of Michigan found that just 6.5% of people in Michigan who qualify clear their records within five years of becoming eligible.
To ease that burden, a growing number of states use technology to automate the process, which requires no action on the part of those looking to deep-six their rap sheets. Pennsylvania in 2018 was the first to pass a clean slate law where the government identifies and removes certain criminal records.
Rasa Legal launched an app in 2022 where Utahns check their eligibility on their cellphones. More than 20,000 people have signed on, and 3,500 have had their criminal records cleared, said Noella Sudbury, Rasa founder and CEO.
Sudbury, a former public defender, said the manual, paper-based process frustrated her, and that expungement clinics had to turn people away at the end of the day "broke my heart."
"And today because of this software, no one will be turned away," she said. "Today our technology means a second chance at a better life."
Shayne Hatch was among the hundreds of people lined up on a chilly Wednesday to get into the Delta Center.
The 63-year-old South Salt Lake man pleaded guilty in 1980 to six felony charges for what he called "bank larceny" when he was 19. He thought his record had been expunged years ago, but he said he's flagged every time there's a national security issue. Though his voting rights and gun rights were restored, he said that causes problems when tries to buy firearms. If he's successful in getting his record cleared, he said, "I'll probably go hunting with the grandkids."
