SB 184-ACCESS TO MARIJUANA CONVICTION RECORDS  2:13:20 PM CHAIR COGHILL reconvened the meeting and announced the consideration of SB 184. He noted the proposed committee substitute (CS). 2:13:54 PM SENATOR COSTELLO moved to adopt the work draft CS for SB 184, version 30-LS1282\N, as the working document. 2:14:02 PM CHAIR COGHILL objected for an explanation of the changes. 2:14:35 PM JORDAN SHILLING, Staff Senator John Coghill, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, advised that SB 184 has been significantly narrowed in scope. It reduces costs to agencies while maintaining the core aspects. He reviewed the following changes: • The ban the box provision was removed. • The requirement that the Department of Public Safety go through each manual record in their APSIN database and remove eligible individuals was removed. Those individuals instead would apply and, on a case-by-case basis DPS will approve or deny their removal from APSIN. This is the provision that drove the fiscal note. • The CS retains the provision that removes the convictions for eligible individuals from CourtView. CHAIR COGHILL asked the sponsor to provide his thoughts on the CS. 2:15:59 PM SENATOR TOM BEGICH, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, said he supports the committee substitute. He related that he had a good conversation with Senators Coghill and Shower about the ban the box concept and the fact that some of the elements are under consideration by the Department of Administration (DOA). If it requires legislation he will pursue that in future years. What the bill tries to do is provide people with opportunities for redemption and moving forward with their lives. Conversations with his staff, the chair's staff, and DPS resolved the issue of DPS going through 11,000 records. The CS gets to the same point as the original version in a far more simplified way. He encouraged the committee's support. 2:17:08 PM CHAIR COGHILL offered his understanding that the bill doesn't just pull the relevant cases from CourtView. It places a block on the file unless there is a reason to access it. SENATOR BEGICH said that's correct. CHAIR COGHILL asked Ms. Meade to comment on the language related to CourtView. 2:18:07 PM NANCY MEADE, General Counsel, Administrative Staff, Office of the Administrative Director, Alaska Court System, Anchorage, Alaska, said Section 3 makes these court records entirely confidential. They will be treated like a child in need of aid (CINA) case or a juvenile case. These are not open to the public in any manner and are not posted on CourtView. CHAIR COGHILL asked if the information in those files would be open to a lawyer's search. MS. MEADE said law enforcement attorneys have access to confidential cases and judges know there are confidential cases, but the information is not available to the general public. CHAIR COGHILL asked if it would be fairly easy for the court to flag these cases. MS. MEADE said it isn't necessarily easy to identify the cases because the marijuana statutes have changed over the years, but she has high confidence the court will be able to comply. Responding to a further question, she said the court can do this without fiscal impact. CHAIR COGHILL found no further questions. He removed his objection and version N was adopted. 2:21:56 PM SENATOR COSTELLO moved to report the CS for SB 184, version N, from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). 2:22:13 PM CHAIR COGHILL announced that without objection CSSB 184(JUD) moved from the Senate Judiciary Standing Committee.