I hope everyone had a peaceful and rejuvenating Martin Luther King, Jr. day. The legislature took Monday off. The rest of the week was also pretty quiet for our issues.

The coming week will be just the opposite. Even with the expected winter weather, we have multiple hearings scheduled for Tuesday.

HB 2747 and HB 2047 are both bills that would set up automatic expungement systems in Missouri. That means that many criminal convictions would automatically fall off a person's record once they are done with their sentence and a certain amount of time elapses. HB 2747 also includes language that would require a unanimous jury decision before the death sentence could be imposed.

HB 1616 creates an oversight system for the department of corrections. The office of oversight would be housed outside of the department of corrections.

HB 2751, 2831, and 2695 allow people incarcerated in a DOC facility to earn time off their sentence either through participation in programs or through good behavior. HB 2751 also includes language that would reinstate food stamp benefits for people previously convicted of a drug-related crime.

The MO NAACP supports all four issues. You can submit testimony online until midnight on Tuesday, if you want to show your support.