Utah Jazz & SEG Foundation Offer Second Chances through Expungement Summit

Featured Focus: Partnerships for Good, Social Justice, Access / Inclusion / Equality

Scope of Impact: State

Through a groundbreaking partnership, the Utah Jazz, the Smith Entertainment Group Foundation (SEG), the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, Clean Slate Utah, and Rasa have spearheaded the Utah Expungement Summit.

The focus? Giving Utah citizens with past legal missteps a fresh start. The initiative helps those with criminal records obtain the necessary resources to erase their past convictions, allowing them to apply for better job and housing opportunities. But this isn’t a new idea. In fact, it’s second time the Utah Jazz and the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition have organized this type of expungement summit.

The first edition happened right before the 2023 All Star Game hosted in Salt Lake City, and both efforts mark a full-scale push from multiple state entities to help Utahns take advantage of the Clean Slate legislation.

The State of Utah is only the second state to enact a law to automatically expunges certain, lower-level misdemeanor criminal records for eligible residents. Overall, over 2,300 people registered for this year’s Summit, highlighting the potential reach and impact of the event to Utah’s communities. Nearly half of those that registered for the event were eligible to clear at least one record, and 387 eligible individuals submitted paperwork necessary to begin the clearance process while at the event.

“The reality in Utah is that one in four people have a criminal record,” said Destiny Garcia, executive director of Clean Slate Utah. “No one should be defined by their past. A mistake should never be the permanent barrier to success.”

See the original story here.

❝

Since acquiring the Jazz in 2020 from the Miller family, Ryan Smith and SEG have been all about impacting the state in multiple ways, and this expungement summit is a great example of it.

By leveraging a public-private partnership that brought together two nonprofit organizations, a legal services firm, and elevated the initiative through the Jazz’s awareness and recognition across the state, the SEG foundation was able to give a second chance to thousands of individuals.

It’s a great example of how to build a well-rounded initiative that’s a true WIN | WIN for all parties involved.