Alaska Criminal Records

Alaska has no counties, no county jails and no expungement statute, and it runs one court system for the whole state. The Department of Public Safety sells a name-based criminal history online for $20 to anyone, the Alaska Court System's CourtView searches every trial court free and says on its own page that some cases never appear and some are removed, and the state's answer to a clean slate is the suspended imposition of sentence, which ends in a set-aside conviction and a case pulled from the public index. This page gives the Alaska rule and the Alaska search for each record, with government sources only.

The Department of Public Safety's background checks page offers to "request a name-based background check securely online," through its criminal history report service, with "additional reports requested at a later date" at $20, and the paper route is the request for criminal justice information from the Alaska Criminal History Record Repository, where "criminal justice information available to an interested person" is the category a stranger gets and "a check or money order payable to the State of Alaska in the amount of $20 must accompany this request." The repository is the Alaska Public Safety Information Network, APSIN, and what an interested person receives under AS 12.62.160 is the record of convictions and of cases still open, with the set-aside and dismissed matters left out; the Department's own record correction form lists "SET ASIDE INFORMATION IS MISSING: APSIN does not show that the conviction was set-aside" as one of the errors a person may report, which is a reminder that the state's own file lags the court. It is a name search, and the criminal records page explains why a name match is a guess; the fingerprint version is for the person's own review and for the employers and licensing boards the statutes name.

Felonies are tried in the superior court and misdemeanors in the district court, both parts of the single Alaska Court System sitting in the state's four judicial districts. The court system's search cases page is unusually plain about the limits of its own index: "Some court case records do not ever appear on CourtView and some case records are removed after a time period, as provided by statute, court rule, or court order. The categories of court cases that do not appear on this site are described at Cases Removed From Public Index." The CourtView information page explains the search by name for any case type, wills included, and names one of the removed categories: "Certain criminal cases in which the defendant successfully completed a suspended imposition of sentence and the court set aside the conviction under AS 12.55.085 and all other charges in the case were dismissed, set aside, or the defendant was acquitted. See Administrative Rule 40(a)(13)." The clerk of court at the location where the case was heard certifies the file, and the county pages on this site link each courthouse by borough and census area. A background check company's "Alaska court record" is a copy of CourtView on the date it was pulled, and a case CourtView has since removed is exactly the case such a copy keeps; the criminal records page explains the rest of what a copy misses.

Alaska has no statute that expunges or seals an adult conviction. What it has is the suspended imposition of sentence under AS 12.55.085: a court may suspend imposition of sentence and place the defendant on probation, and on successful completion "set aside the conviction," after which the person may say the conviction was set aside, and the legislature's amendments to subsection (e) allow "the destruction of certain records" only where "a conviction, suspension of imposition of sentence, and set aside under AS 12.55.085 have all occurred after the effective date." The court side is the removal from CourtView: under Administrative Rule 40(a) and AS 22.35.030, the court system removes from its public index the cases that ended in acquittal or dismissal and the set-aside cases the rule describes, and a person asks for it on the court's request to exclude case from CourtView, form TF-810. The court file itself remains at the clerk's office, and the Department's repository shows the set-aside once it is reported. A copy sold before the removal keeps the case, and the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page, is what forces the copy to catch up.

Alaska's Public Records Act, AS 40.25.100 to 40.25.295, opens the records of every public agency, and its law enforcement exemption in AS 40.25.120(a)(6) is written on the model of the federal Freedom of Information Act: records compiled for law enforcement purposes are withheld only to the extent that release "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings," would deprive a person of a fair trial, would invade personal privacy, would disclose a confidential source or technique, or would endanger someone. The arrest, the charge and the booking are none of those, and the police departments release them, with the investigative file held while the exemption applies. Who is in custody is a state question, since the Department of Corrections runs every jail and prison in Alaska, the Anchorage Correctional Complex for pretrial detention among them, and the Department points the public to VINELink and its toll-free line for custody and release information. The arrest records page covers what happens to a booking after it leaves the state's system.

An Alaska judgment becomes a lien on the debtor's real property in a recording district when a certified copy is recorded there under AS 09.30.010, and the section sets the term: "The lien continues during the time execution may issue on the judgment or decree but for not more than 10 years from date of entry of the judgment or decree. After expiration of the lien, the court may grant leave for issuance of execution" on a showing the section requires. AS 09.10.040 matches the judgment to it: an action upon a judgment must be commenced within ten years. Land in Alaska is recorded by recording district, not by borough, so a lien search is a recording district search. The court records page covers where the judgments and the recorder's indexes are searched.

Alaska is a single federal judicial district, the District of Alaska, under 28 U.S.C. 81A, and court is held at Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan and Nome. A federal criminal case from any of Alaska's boroughs and census areas is on that one docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has an Alaska record: the Department's $20 name check answers it, online, convictions and open cases, set-asides left out once reported.

Whether a person was charged in any Alaska court: CourtView answers it free, statewide, except for the cases the court has removed from the index.

Whether a person was arrested: the arrest and the charge are public under the Public Records Act, and the file is withheld only while the exemption applies.

Whether a person is in custody now: VINELink answers it for every jail and prison in the state.

Whether an old case can still be found: a set-aside case is off CourtView and marked set aside in the repository, a judgment lien lapses at ten years, and a copy that predates the removal is reached through the federal rule.