An estimated tens of millions of US adults have a criminal record, including many with only arrests and no conviction. Records can block jobs, apartments, loans and licenses long after a sentence ends. Black Americans, policed and arrested at higher rates, carry records at higher rates.
Traditional expungement requires filing a petition, paying fees and often going to court. A 2020 study of Michigan found that only 6.5 percent of eligible people obtained expungement within five years. Researchers call this the second chance gap.
Clean slate laws close the gap by sealing eligible records automatically. Pennsylvania passed the first in 2018, and more than a dozen states plus Washington, DC, have followed. Many states that legalized marijuana have also created ways to clear past cannabis convictions.