Guest Contributor

The 2025 Utah Expungement Summit was a groundbreaking event that demonstrated the power of collaboration, advocacy, and community-driven support. This year’s summit shattered records, reaching more people than ever before and laying the groundwork for even greater impact in the year ahead. Learn more in this guest contribution from Destiny Garcia, Executive Director, Clean Slate Utah.

In Massachusetts, too many people with arrest and conviction records continue to face barriers to employment, housing, education, and more, long after they have paid their debt to society. Clean Slate advocates in the state are working to change that.  Learn more in this guest contribution from Rahsaan D. Hall, Esq. and Reynolds Graves.

Republican lawmakers have a unique opportunity in 2025: They can build the momentum of Clean Slate by championing the legislation at the state and federal levels, and play a leading role in unlocking opportunities for millions of Americans, boosting our economy, and making our communities safer. Learn more in this contributed update from Jason Pye, Vice President at Due Process Institute.

Code for America’s Advocates Guide focuses on ensuring that Clean Slate policies are set up for success by keeping in mind the key needs for implementation from the start of the policy planning process. Learn more in this contributed update from Candice Millsap, Senior Program Manager, Clear My Record at Code for America.

November 16 marked the one-year anniversary of NY Governor Hochul signing the state’s Clean Slate Act, which is among the nation’s most expansive and inclusive legislation to seal old conviction records. What does that mean, and what comes next? Learn more in this update from Clean Slate New York partners at the Center for Community Alternatives.

California’s Clean Slate law is a significant development in the national effort to provide automated record relief for millions of people who have records in America. Learn more in this blog post from CSI and California Policy Lab.

Research conducted in partnership with CSI was recently published as a working paper titled, “Can you Erase the Mark of a Criminal Record? Labor Market Impacts of Criminal Record Remediation” by Amanda Agan (Rutgers University) and several colleagues. Learn more in this blog post from Dr. Laura Chavez and Dr. Amanda Agan.

The Clean Slate Initiative’s mission includes not only passing Clean Slate policies but also ensuring they are implemented so that automatic record clearance becomes a reality for millions of people in America. While clearing arrest and conviction records can include technical hurdles, those hurdles aren’t insurmountable — especially with the right people at the table.

This year Texas lawmakers missed an opportunity to advance a Clean Slate policy that would have improved the lives of more than three million Texans. Read more in this guest contribution by Tracie Burkhart, someone whose life would have been impacted by this important legislation.

It's time to talk about education — specifically, barriers to education for the millions of adults in America who are living with a record. Read more in this guest contribution by Stanley Andrisse, Executive Director of From Prison Cells to PhD, Scientist, and author of From Prison Cells to PhD: It’s Never Too Late To Do Good.

Amanda’s journey through addiction, incarceration, reentry, and receiving a second chance is a story about perseverance, strength, determination, and the need for Clean Slate. Learn more in this guest blog post by Amanda Hall, Justice Director of Dream.org.