The 11th day of April means more to Elvina Smith than her daughters will ever know.
For 17 years, a shoplifting conviction that led to six days in a Wayne County, Michigan, jail and a year of probation impacted every aspect of Smith’s otherwise law-abiding life.
From 2006 to 2007, Smith traveled for miles outside of Detroit to check in with a probation officer, where random drug and alcohol tests were requested — despite Smith saying she did not struggle with substance-use addiction.
But those burdensome — and often embarrassing — requests ended last year when Smith’s record was expunged on April 11 — the result of her successful participation in a so-called “clean slate” program, efforts by states across the nation to purge the convictions of those who have committed nonviolent offenses but have had no other interactions with the criminal justice system.
“Over the course of the next month, I would say it went from my record having all kinds of stuff to it being completely blank,” said Smith, who’s 47. “I’ve never been so happy to see that my name brought back nothing on a sheet of paper.”
Smith is one of the hundreds of people who criminal justice reform advocates say have taken part in clean slate programs, which have been enacted in a dozen states since 2018.
More than 40% of the roughly 800 people with arrest or conviction records in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Utah who had their records sealed automatically reported “improvements in their employment, personal finances, and access to public assistance,” according to a survey released this month by the Clean Slate Initiative, an advocacy group for expungement policies and legislation. “Additionally, 35% of these respondents reported better family relationships, and 34% noted improved mental health and self-esteem,” the survey also found.
“If your crime is being poor, you won’t be able to get your record clear because it’s costly,” said Sheena Meade, CEO of the Clean Slate Initiative. “You have to get an attorney, you have to jump through hoops, you have to take off work — it’s just really complicated.”
The problem is, most people don’t realize that having a record goes beyond a criminal conviction, and going to jail or prison, Meade says.
“Just a mere brush with the legal system can have long-lasting, negative impacts on your family, community, and larger, especially our economy,” Meade said, noting that employers, landlords, and higher education administrators use background checks to screen potential applicants.
Read More: Groundbreaking Legislation Would Seal Criminal Convictions for Many Californians
When applying for housing or professional licenses, background checks reveal all interactions with the criminal justice system — including traffic and family courts — often without noting each cases’ outcome.
“There are millions of people who have been arrested and sent right back home or been arrested [and] have dismissals, and yet this arrest still serves as a barrier to them getting access to jobs, housing, and education,” Meade said.
Typically, clean slate laws seal criminal records for eligible nonviolent felony and misdemeanor convictions after a certain period when all conditions of the conviction are adjudicated. Advocacy groups like the Clean Slate Initiative are working with more than two dozen states to propose, pass, and carry out similar legislation.
Connecticut’s version of clean slate legislation was signed into law in 2021, but it has not yet been fully put in place because of technical difficulties. Delaware’s legislation passed in 2021, but wasn’t implemented until Aug. 1. And after Colorado passed its law in 2022, it wasn’t until July that over 100,000 court records were automatically sealed.
What seems like bureaucratic delays are “intensive planning, programming modifications of multiple complex agency case management information systems, upgrades in technology, and changes in business practices and workflow,” according to research released in April 2023 by the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics.
Other states that have passed clean slate laws include: California, New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virginia.
When Michigan announced that April 11, 2023, would be the effective date for its clean slate law, Smith attended the event with trepidation, hoping for a chance to clear her record. Before she arrived, one of her misdemeanor convictions had automatically dropped off her record.
After 17 years of her single felony and three misdemeanors appearing on background checks and preventing her from fully engaging in her daughters’ lives and activities with their classmates and parents, she was uncertain if this could finally change.
With a felony conviction on her record and $6,000 in legal fees later, Smith was unprepared for the collateral consequences that would prevent her from securing housing, volunteering as a chaperone for her children’s school field trips, or achieving any personal goals that required a background check.
Smith says she had been placed in “weird” positions where she had to explain to other parents about her invisible scarlet letter.
“You don’t want to tell people, ‘Oh, I have a felony,’” Smith said.
As an example, Smith says she always feels forced to oversell herself with each application for housing. She said she always had to attach a letter that states: “I have a felony. This is not just who I am. It’s something that happened. I would still be a great tenant,” she said.
During Second Chance Month last April, Smith was alerted about an automatic expungement fair hosted by the nonprofit group Safe & Just Michigan. The state’s clean slate legislation was passed and signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, but it took three more years for it to be implemented.
Each day, old convictions, arrests, traffic violations, and dismissed charges linger on a Black adult’s background check, further hindering their progress as they wait for housing, job, or loan decisions.
“Long lasting negative impacts”
For Meade, working to put clean slate legislation on the books at the federal and state level is personal. As a Black woman living in Florida with a record from 2004 for bouncing an $87 check for groceries, Meade says getting a second chance after incarceration or a non-jail conviction can be difficult, especially if you come from a low-income community, and in the South.
For example, in time for the 2020 presidential election, Florida enacted a law that restored voting rights for formerly incarcerated people who completed their sentences and paid court fees. Supporters’ applause was short-lived, however, when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation into law that disenfranchised that same community from voting again. Without clarity on this new law, more than a dozen clean slate Black Floridians were put back into the criminal justice system with voter fraud charges. To date, all but two of those cases have concluded.
Arrests and charges can appear on background checks even if they didn’t result in a conviction or were dismissed before arraignment. Additionally, wrongful convictions, which have impacted 649 Black people in the 12 states with clean slate laws since 1989, can also remain on their record.
That lack of clarity has led millions to miss out on opportunities that could prevent recidivism. However, there are laws in each state that provide people the chance to get their criminal record expunged, and sealed, which comes with its own obstacles and costs.
In recent years, more county prosecutors have organized expungement fairs to raise awareness among Black adults, who are disproportionately impacted by having a criminal record. President Joe Biden and governors in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oregon have used their executive powers to pardon those with decades-old federal and state low-level marijuana convictions.
Nationally, nearly half of Black adults — about 46% — have a record. Progress on the federal side to have a Clean Slate Act is promising, Meade says. More than half of Black adults in California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Utah have a criminal record, according to research conducted by the Clean Slate Initiative.
Pending legislation is being considered in Kentucky, while plans to introduce new legislation in Texas are set for 2025. Additionally, there are active initiatives in Illinois, Missouri, and several other states that the national clean slate coalition is working on. Efforts in North Carolina have stalled, however.
A year after clearing their records, Michigan residents who have taken part in the program have earned 22% higher wages and are less likely than members of the public to commit crimes within five years after their record was cleared, according to a 2020 study published in the Harvard Law Review.
Meade says convincing lawmakers of the urgency of clean slate legislation is worth the fight to legally relieve those who have paid their debt to society after past mistakes. She’s also optimistic that a similar legislation will be in Florida — one day.
Once Smith’s record was cleared, she received a promotion at her job, and went back to college to study accounting — a journey that began on April 11, or 4-1-1, as she affectionately calls it.
“What’s the 4-1-1?!” Smith says to Meade of a day that changed her life — “forever.”
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