General Clean Slate Messaging

Whether you want to craft your own social media posts or just want a general overview of the messages we use, here’s a glimpse at CSI’s general messaging for National Expungement Week — including FAQs!

Primary Messages About Clean Slate Policies

• Everyone in America should have a fair opportunity to make a living, take care of their families, and participate in their communities. After people have paid their debt to society and remain crime-free, they should have a fair shot at redemption.

• Tens of millions of people — including many who have never been convicted — are saddled with legal records that block meaningful opportunities, including employment, housing, education, starting a business, or participating fully in social and civic community life.

• When our loved ones, friends, neighbors, and community members are barred from fully participating in society and our economy because of a past mistake, we all lose out. We can do better. An arrest or conviction record should not be a life sentence to poverty, exclusion, and stigma.

• The Clean Slate policy model empowers states to automatically seal eligible records for people who remain crime-free for a set period of time.

• In most states, record sealing is only possible through a bureaucratic, time-intensive, and costly petition-based process, which is inaccessible for many working people who are eligible for relief. 

• Automating the expungement process creates a streamlined process that applies to all eligible records — regardless of a person’s race or wealth. We should not have a two-tiered system of justice where the wealthy have access to opportunities and working families are left behind.

• Less than 10% of people who are eligible to have their record sealed ever receive it. The Clean Slate Initiative model works to ensure everyone who has earned a shot at redemption has a meaningful chance at building a better life for themselves. 

• Update eligibility within state statutes so that the greatest number of people can experience the second chance that comes from an expunged record.

Impact Stats

• Between 70 million and 100 million adults living in America — 1 in 3 — now have some type of arrest or conviction record. 

• Nearly half of all U.S. children now have at least one parent with a record. 

• Nearly 94% of employers, 90% of landlords, and 72% of colleges and universities use background checks to screen applicants. 

• Applicants with a record are half as likely as other job seekers to get a callback from an employer.

• Shutting people out of the labor market due to criminal records costs the U.S. economy an estimated $78-87 billion per year in lost GDP.

• Research conducted in Michigan found that a year after record clearance, people are 11 percent more likely to be employed and earn 22 percent higher wages. 

• Clean Slate policies have broad bipartisan support. 70 percent of Americans support clean slate policies — including 66 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of Democrats.

• Formerly incarcerated people are nearly 10 times more likely than the general public to experience homelessness.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What is Clean Slate legislation?

Clean slate legislation empowers states to automatically seal or clear qualifying arrest and conviction records for people who remain crime-free for a set period of time. This legislation helps people access a second chance by streamlining the record-sealing process, which has historically been a costly, bureaucratic barrier for the vast majority of eligible people. 

Who needs a Clean Slate?

Nationwide, 1 in 3 Americans have some kind of arrest or conviction record.  Any record — even a decades-old misdemeanor or an arrest that never led to conviction — can make it nearly impossible to get into college, find a job, secure a place to live, or open a bank account. 

Who supports Clean Slate legislation?

Clean Slate legislation is backed by a diverse array of bipartisan partners coast-to-coast  — including justice reform experts, economic and civil rights advocates, and policy-makers, to justice-involved individuals, crime survivors, prosecutors, clerks, and law enforcement leaders. 

Who benefits from Clean Slate?

Clean Slate policies are a win for all of us. They can be life-changing for individuals, benefit families for generations to come, and be a transformative power for entire communities.

For individuals involved in the legal system and their families, a second chance provides a pathway to fair access to education and job training, a stable job, livable income, and safe housing — all of which have generational benefits.

Preserving a person's past does not deter future crime; instead, stigmatizing individuals with records decreases public safety by limiting opportunities for working people and their families.

When people with records are given a fair opportunity to work, provide for their families, and achieve their goals, our communities thrive. Clean Slate policies are a commonsense solution to providing a pathway to increase public safety.

Clean Slate legislation has major economic benefits as well. States save taxpayer dollars as a result of reduced incarceration as the path to re-entry is smoothed. Qualified job seekers are able to re-enter the labor force, businesses’ workforce needs are met, and one year after clearance, people with records are 11% more likely to be employed and 22% more likely to receive higher wages. Clean Slate legislation is a win for local economies.

What is The Clean Slate Initiative’s role in the expungement process? 

The Clean Slate Initiative is not a direct services provider and we do not provide legal advice. As an advocacy organization, we work to pass laws in states and Congress to automate the record-sealing process to shift the burden from the person to the state to seal eligible records.

About Clean Slate Initiative

The Clean Slate Initiative (CSI) is a non-profit organization that uses a bipartisan policy model to update and expand eligibility for arrest and conviction record clearance if a person stays crime-free for a period of time. CSI efforts unite businesses, advocates, community members, and impacted people across the country to ensure that conviction and non-conviction records are no longer a life sentence to poverty and that past mistakes will not forever define people’s futures. We believe that everyone in America should have a fair opportunity to work, have a safe home, take care of their families, and contribute to their community.