Re-Entry Unblemished event helps offenders understand their rights after they serve their sentences

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- About a dozen Milwaukee community leaders held an open discussion Wednesday night, Nov. 29, centered on helping people who've been through the justice system.

County Supervisor Sequanna Taylor hosted the event to focus on second chances, and that people have their rights restored to them after they've served their sentences.

But not everyone knows how to do that, so people with knowledge of the system -or who have been through the system themselves- are trying to help.

Ed Hennings is a community advocate who told us, "I made some choices in my young adulthood."

He's open about the homicide he committed in 1996. He served his time, and now owns a trucking company and a shoe company.

On Wednesday night, he was a panelist helping people understand their rights to expunge their records after they have served their sentences. He said, "This is very important. I can't even get it. But you can."

Taylor told us her brother committed murder when he was 16 and her biological father has been in and out of prison her whole life.

She sees other people struggling to reintegrate into society, telling us, "I saw some of them lose hope within the system."

If a court grants an expungement, the convicted person's court file is sealed. That means fewer people will see it.

But in Wisconsin, expungement must be asked for at sentencing.

Taylor said, "There are some people that said, 'I had no idea that I could even ask for that at sentencing. And that one part has changed my whole life where I can't get an expungement.'"

She told us her event is not about accepting the crimes that were committed, instead, "This is me saying after they have completed or did their time, who doesn't deserve a second chance?"

Hennings is not eligible for expungement, and says he often feels the impact. "There are certain contracts that me and my truckers can't do because of my felony."

But he says other people pursuing that path now can help their rehabilitation process later. "That's a real apology. Not just what you say out of your mouth, but the change in your actions is the true apology."

Supervisor Taylor will hold several of the meetings throughout the area. But she's also taking it to the CRC, to help prepare people who are on the inside right now before they come out.