RecordSponge Oregon
| RecordSponge Oregon | |
|---|---|
 RecordSponge Oregon | |
| Team Organizations | Code PDX Qiu Qiu Law |
| Point of Contact | Michael Zhang |
| Participating Municipalities | Portland OR |
| Sectors | Data Wellbeing |
| Initiative | |
| Status | Development |
| Last Updated | January 16, 2025 |
Summary
RecordSponge is software that helps community organizations quickly analyze an individual’s criminal history to determine if they qualify to have their records expunged.
For many folks who have had run-ins with the criminal justice system, punishment doesn't end with the end of their sentence. Well past the period of incarceration, a criminal conviction can follow a person around for the rest of their life, preventing them from accessing housing, employment, and services which might otherwise help them integrate back into society.
The State of Oregon provides a way for people to remove a limited set of items from their records, but the rules for determining which items are eligible are complex and prone to error when applying them by hand. As a result, expungement analysis is expensive in Portland - ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 when performed by private attorneys.
The goal of this project will be to democratize the expungement process by making it available to all Oregonians, regardless of their ability to pay. It further seeks to provide these services in the communities that need them the most.
To accomplish this, Code for PDX is working together with [Qiu Qiu Law|Qiu Qiu Law] to create analytical software that will quickly determine which items on an applicant's record, scraped from criminal record data from the Oregon eCourt Case Information website, are eligible for expungement.
Resources
- [Design system UI design guidelines and a living pattern library of frequently used components to help create effective and consistent interactions.
- Examples of potential search results
- Expungement rules flowchart - Note: this flowchart is outdated and has errors. Updated documentation is forthcoming; for now the most accurate reference is the Oregon statute: https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/137.225
- QA testing plan - Note: this document is very much a work-in-progress