Court Opinion

ID: 9667486
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:47:15.683478+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:38.294777
License: Public Domain

V. J. Brennan, J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent. I find that the Department of Corrections is a "law enforcement agency” for the purposes of JCR 1969, 13 because the courts and police agencies cannot enforce the law without the department. I cannot agree with the majority’s finding that the department’s powers are related solely to administration.
Moreover, a finding that the Department of Corrections is a "law enforcement agency” is a *273reasonable interpretation which supports what appears to me to be the purpose of the rule, to give an individual a fresh start. The majority’s construction allows the Department of Corrections to have an individual’s juvenile record before a review panel when it decides whether to grant or deny prisoner requests, perhaps becoming a factor in its decision making.1 On the other hand, the courts and other agencies do not have access to those records per JCR 1969, 13. If a court or law enforcement agency is restricted from using a juvenile record because of the expunction of the record, how does the Department of Corrections obtain any greater privilege or right to the juvenile record? Surely, priorities would dictate that the courts have all available information about a defendant at the sentencing stage. Since the rule prohibits the courts from having access to the juvenile record at that critical stage, I think it naturally follows that the rule was also intended to prohibit the Department of Corrections, as a law enforcement agency, from having access to the record. Therefore, I would order the expunction of the appellant’s juvenile record from the file of the Department of Corrections._

 In this case, appellant acquired a juvenile record in Schoolcraft County for malicious destruction of property. Appellant was 11 years old at the time. Appellant’s juvenile record was allegedly critical to the Department of Corrections’ denial of his requests for an opportunity to participate in various work release programs.