Although National Expungement Week (N.E.W.) has passed, Rosalie Flores feels like she’s just getting started. A passionate organizer for N.E.W., Flores is pleased with the work being done, but understands there’s still a long way to go.
How did you become affiliated with N.E.W.?
I joined N.E.W. – shortly after its inception – as the Colorado state organizer, knowing little of the process or barriers to record-sealing. The idea of organizations and individuals offering reparative justice clinics nationwide sounded like a true grassroots effort, on a large scale. Planning calls to share resources and ideas brought more issues to light for those of us new to this line of work. The needs became more evident and started to move the tide that we are hoping to turn. People now know about expungement and why it’s needed. It starts new conversations about old problems. I’ve found myself an advocate by default, not desire. You can’t unlearn injustice. I’m here, doing what I know I can do to change it, now that I’ve come to understand that which was intended to be kept from me.
Have efforts for cannabis offense expungement been successful?
Speaking only from my experience in Colorado and New Mexico, I’d say the efforts on expungement have been slow, tedious, and tactfully difficult. For the first time ever in 2019, the state of New Mexico passed a very limited expungement bill. New Mexico’s crime rate is one of the highest in the nation and the state itself is considered poor by monetary standards. It seems the difficulty of getting better paying jobs with a record would be obvious. Instead, the lack of opportunities seem to perpetuate crime and justify the continual criminalization of people with a record.