29 February 2024
One of the main reasons that formerly imprisoned people face many other obstacles in accessing normal opportunities is the permanent convictions remaining on their records. For a while, these people have been denied employment and benefits because of their former convictions. Under Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate Law, criminal convictions are removed from one’s record after several years, contingent on the level of the crime, making it easier for previous offenders to reenter society with an equal chance at success. (1). The Clean Slate Law needs to be made into a federal law or, at minimum, be proposed in other states legislatures.
Getting a job with a conviction on your personal record makes the process extremely difficult and tedious. Many employers view formerly convicted persons as unreliable or see them as likely to be repeat offenders (2). This makes it far more difficult for previous offenders to find a job compared to non-offenders, regardless of other factors like education or experience. About 60% of people who leave prison remain unemployed a year later, which shows just how severe this problem is (3). Under current policy, a person who commits one crime, at any point in their life, will reap the consequences of that one action for the rest of their lives. The Clean Slate Law addresses this issue, as it allows eligible convictions to be sealed from criminal records after a certain number of years. The number of years until one can seal their record is longer depending on the severity of the crime: felonies can be sealed after ten years, misdemeanors after seven years, and summary offenses after five (1). This is dependent on the behavior of the offender in prison as well as in the years following; however, if they follow and uphold all court-ordered tasks as well as avoid any repeated offenses, they qualify for the Clean Slate protection. The initial employment obstacles will exist for a few years following the crime but will likely end after the records are sealed.
The Clean Slate Act is as a way for convicted felons to get a second chance. It doesn’t take the offense away, and it doesn’t hide the record from authorities, but it seals the crimes from the public record that employers, realtors, and anyone else conducting a background check can see (1). This could lead to a much higher percentage of employment for convicted felons, which aids in the rehabilitation and reintegration process. Employment for those who have served time or been charged with criminal activity has proven to be very beneficial in the rehab process, and the Clean Slate Act aims to improve job accessibility for these people (4).
The Clean Slate Act phase one was first introduced and passed in 2018 by the Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, in cooperation with Governor Tom Wolf (5). This act outlined the eligible conviction types, the amount of time that must pass, and the requirements that must be met for records to be sealed. When it was passed in 2018, phase one of the bill focused on sealing non-violent misdemeanors (6). It stated, first, that if someone who was convicted with a non-violent misdemeanor could comply with the legal system for 10 years, they could have the offense sealed from their record. Secondly, it allowed petitioning for sealing offenses resulting in a year or more of prison when the person had paid all debts and had not repeated any offenses. Lastly, it allowed for automatic sealing of second- and third-degree misdemeanors after 10 years with no additional offenses (6). The three terms of phase one set the groundwork for the terms in the future phases.
In 2020, phase two was passed, which only made a few changes to phase one. It allowed cases to be sealed even when debts were still owed, conditional on the offender’s record of responsible and on-time payments since the time the payments began (5).
The most recent phase, phase three, was passed in December of 2023. This phase was passed by the Pennsylvania House in June, amended by the Senate, and signed by Governor Josh Shapiro on December 14th of 2023 (5). This phase allows for the sealing of less severe drug convictions, as well as of property related crimes. Obviously, the same terms apply in this phase—repeat offenders likely become ineligible for sealing, and in some cases, including the property related cases, they must file for a court petition. When it comes to drug-related crimes, offenses punished with thirty or more months in prison are not eligible for sealing (5). Drug crimes with this length of sentencing are commonly trafficking offenses. Because of the severity of these types of crimes, and the amount of people involved in them, the Clean Slate Act does not protect them. For less severe, personal drug crimes, the Clean Slate Law could protect offenders from forever being affected by a minor drug crime. Lastly, the third phase shortens the waiting period for misdemeanors up to seven years, and summary convictions up to five years. Sharon Dietrich, the Litigation Director at Community Legal Services—the group that initially proposed the bill—stated: “Clean Slate expansion will allow hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians to move past their old mistakes. I am grateful to our clients who spoke up to support this life-changing legislation and applaud our sponsors for their leadership” (5).
There are eleven states across the country that have passed the Clean Slate Legislature since Pennsylvania first did in 2018 (7). The Clean Slate Initiative, the group responsible for the vast majority of all the Clean Slate action across the country, has teams working in nearly every state to get Clean Slate laws passed, and hopes to see this become a nationwide adoption in the coming years. Though twelve states seem like a lot, the Clean Slate Initiative has been working at this since 2018, and six years later, there should be more than twelve states with this legislation in place. Some states have just recently passed their first phases, while others that have already passed Clean Slate legislation are working to pass newer phases. The Clean Slate Initiative hopes to continue this trajectory, and they are hoping to have many more Clean-Slate-eligible states in 2024. They are not asking for every person who has committed a crime to get a second chance—as there are some crimes that should not be sealed for public safety—but are asking for many smaller offenses to be sealed to ensure a smooth reentry into society for those who deserve it. As earlier stated, it is much more difficult for formerly incarcerated persons to perform many normal actions in our society when it comes to employment and purchases, so the primary goal of the Clean Slate Initiative is to address this without changing laws regarding employment, real estate, and all other fields that can be obstacles for previous offenders. They cannot change the fact that employers would rather hire someone with no convictions than someone with them, regardless of how fit for the job the applicant is; however, they can provide these people with a second chance. The Clean Slate Initiative will not only improve our society but will also help shift the focus of our criminal justice system more towards rehabilitation—which must happen.
Image via Governor Tom Wolf on Flickr under Attribution 2.0 Generic license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/, https://www.flickr.com/photos/governortomwolf/
Works Cited
- Home. (n.d.). My Clean Slate PA. Retrieved January 25, 2024, from https://mycleanslatepa.com
- Criminal Conviction Discrimination. (2018, April 25). Justia. https://www.justia.com/employment/employment-discrimination/criminal-conviction-discrimination/#:~:text=Many%20employers%20believe%20that%20once
- Smith, T. J. (2023, July 6). Ex-Prisoners Face Headwinds as Job Seekers, Even as Openings Abound. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/business/economy/jobs-hiring-after-prison.html#:~:text=An%20estimated%2060%20percent%20of
- Parker, K. (2022, December 1). Employment after Prison: The Importance of Supporting Workers Who are Seeking Work after Incarceration [Review of Employment after Prison: The Importance of Supporting Workers Who are Seeking Work after Incarceration]. NCDA. https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/page_template/show_detail/476831?model_name=news_article#:~:text=The%20Benefits,also%20has%20benefits%20for%20employers.
- Clean Slate 3.0 Enacted into Law – Allows Sealing of Some Old Felony Criminal Records | Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network. (n.d.). Palegalaid.net. Retrieved January 25, 2024, from https://palegalaid.net/news/clean-slate-30-enacted-law-allows-sealing-some-felony-criminal-records
- Harris, Jordan (2018). Clean Slate Law. (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2024, from https://www.phila.gov/media/20190724193740/Day-2-Session-3-PA-Clean-Slate-Law-Harris.pdf
- The Clean Slate Initiative. (n.d.). The Clean Slate Initiative. https://www.cleanslateinitiative.org/states#states
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