Lawmakers in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly are close to a vote on a bill that seeks to eliminate criminal records, which supporters of the bill argue make it difficult for former convicts and those with criminal records to find a job.

Under the current law, criminal records remain on a convicted person’s record for 10 years from the time they finish serving their court-imposed sentence.

The proposed legislation aims to amend the Law of Judicial Records and Archives so that conviction records will not appear for those seeking employment, except for convictions related to organized crime, terrorism, sexual offenses against minors, murder, femicide and crimes against a civil servant.

Furthermore, in the case of those not seeking employment, the bill aims to immediately remove any criminal records for those whose sentence was three years in prison or less upon completion of their sentence; reduce the criminal record from the current 10 years to just 1 year for those who were sentenced to between three and five years imprisonment; while those sentenced to five to ten years in prison, the criminal record would remain for 3 years.

For those sentenced to 10 years or more in prison, the record would remain for 5 years.

The bill also proposes that the criminal records of female convicts who live in a condition of “poverty or vulnerability” have their criminal records erased immediately after completion of their sentence, regardless of the crime or the amount of time served.

The Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly approved the final text of the bill on February 25^th and the bill is now ready for voting in plenary.

The bill has received the support of the current administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis.

While many lawmakers from across political aisles have expressed support for the bill, business leaders argue that employers have a right to know about the criminal background of potential employees.