From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!
It’s a glass box about the size of a rowhouse with alien-like figures looking out. The structure now sits in Independence Historic National Park, at Market Street between 5th and 6th, right outside the Visitor’s Center.
The 38 life-size figures made of stacked paper represent the number of states that do not have legislative policies expediting the expungement of criminal records, or clean slate laws.
The stacks of paper symbolize the paperwork needed to get a criminal history erased.
“This represents the mounds and mounds of paper that individuals have to go through in order to get those records expunged,” said Nan Gibson, executive director of the JPMorgan Chase PolicyCenter. “The figures are hunched over. It’s a graphic representation of the weight of those records.”
JPMorgan Chase commissioned this art and advocacy installation, called “Waiting Workforce,” from the Glue Society, an international artist collective based in London.
“Waiting Workforce” made its debut in Philadelphia in part because Pennsylvania was the first of 12 states to pass clean slate laws. The laws make record expungement easier, in some cases even automatic, and require no paperwork at all. Recently, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a third iteration of that policy into law.
Those with complicated criminal records that do not trigger automatic erasure by state law can get legal help at expungement clinics held occasionally around the region.
