Contra Costa DA to clear marijuana convictions for 2,399 people, thanks to Prop 64

MARTINEZ — The Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton’s office is set to overturn marijuana convictions for 2,399 people, including 316 who have no other criminal convictions on their record, the office announced Thursday.

The move, which will overturn 3,264 convictions in total, comes as a result of a partnership between the district attorney and a non-profit called Code for America, which employs programmers, designers, and data aggregators to “improve government services,” according to its website. The district attorney news release says the goal of the partnership was to right wrongs that came from the “failed War on Drugs.”

The convictions were eligible for legal relief under Prop 64, which was passed by voters in 2016. The state law overturned parts of the penal code that criminalized growing and possessing marijuana, and allowed it to be sold recreationally.

“Far too often old criminal convictions for minor drug offenses can leave a lasting mark on an individual’s life,” Becton said in a written statement, as part of a news release. “The removal of these convictions effectively reduces barriers to licensing, education, housing and employment. It is imperative that we continue to be innovative in our approach to reforming and strengthening the criminal justice system.”

Code for America has now identified more than 10,000 marijuana convictions that are eligible to be overturned across California; last year, a San Francisco judge signed off on overturning 8,000 marijuana convictions, thanks to a similar partnership with then-San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón.

Code for America developed a program that, “reads bulk criminal history data from the California Department of Justice, and securely and accurately analyzes eligibility for record remediation under state law,” a DA news release says. Rather than exhaustively going through decades of criminal records, attorneys can identify convictions that should be overturned within minutes.

Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties are both undergoing a similar process, and are expected to clear 75,000 convictions.

“At Code for America, we believe government can work dramatically better than it does today; the criminal justice system is one of the areas in which we are most failing the American people. We must make sure that California lives up to the obligation of Proposition 64 and now AB 1793,” said Jennifer Pahlka, Founder and Executive Director, Code for America, in the news release.

The overturned convictions include 2,980 felonies. For those who qualified, 531 will no longer have a felony conviction, and 316 will now have a completely clear criminal record. Of the 2,399 affected, approximately 36% are Black or African American, 45% are White, 15% are Latinx, 2% are Asian/Pacific Islander, and 2% are other or unknown, the news release says.

The convictions will be automatically overturned. Anyone who was convicted of a marijuana-related offense in Contra Costa County can check if they’re among the 2,399 by emailing DA-prop64@contracostada.org.