The General Assembly finds and declares that the Unified Judicial System will benefit from: (1) extensive revision of statutory arbitration; and (2) establishment of a collaborative law process. 2018, JUNE 28, P.L.402, NO.56 Preamble The General Assembly finds and declares as follows: (1) Individuals with charges not leading to convictions may be inherently harmed by the maintenance of that record and have a constitutional presumption of innocence. (2) Individuals convicted of crimes in this Commonwealth should serve their sentences as ordered by the courts of this Commonwealth. (3) After less violent individuals convicted of crimes have served their sentences and remained crime free long enough to demonstrate rehabilitation, the individuals' access to employment, housing, education and other necessities of life should be fully restored. (4) Criminal justice agencies need access to all criminal history record information in order to effectively carry out the agencies' duties to protect the public. (5) The Commonwealth shall provide a clean slate remedy, as set forth under this act, to: (i) Create a strong incentive for avoidance of recidivism by offenders. (ii) Provide hope for the alleviation of the hardships of having a criminal record by offenders who are trying to rehabilitate themselves. (iii) Save the Commonwealth money that must be spent in the administration of criminal justice when offenders recidivate. (iv) Ensure appropriate access to criminal history information by criminal justice agencies. (6) The clean slate remedy should be implemented without cost to the former offender of filing a petition with a court. 2018, OCTOBER 24, P.L.896, NO.147 Preamble The General Assembly finds and declares as follows: (1) Postconviction DNA testing has exonerated wrongfully convicted individuals and identified real perpetrators of crimes. (2) To the extent possible, DNA testing of evidence before trial is encouraged to help prevent wrongful convictions and to lead to earlier detection and conviction of actual perpetrators. 2019, JULY 2, P.L.375, NO.58
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