An Act relative to expungement of juvenile and young adult records

This bill expands the ability of individuals in Massachusetts to have their juvenile and young adult criminal records permanently erased from public view. It primarily affects people who were arrested as minors or young adults and whose cases did not result in a conviction or delinquency adjudication. The law removes strict limits on the number of offenses eligible for expungement and extends the waiting period for felonies to seven years while reducing it to three years for misdemeanors and juvenile cases. Additionally, the legislation clarifies that expunged records cannot be used to identify individuals except for statistical or research purposes and prohibits the sharing of fingerprints for arrests made before a person reaches the age of criminal majority.