Over 70 million people in America are living with a criminal record—that means one in three people face lifetime barriers to good jobs, housing, education, and more. While nearly every state has passed laws that allow people to seal or clear their criminal records, only 6% of eligible people have actually benefited from these laws because the petition-based process is overly complicated, burdensome, and costly.

At Code for America, we’re changing that. We’re working with governments and communities to make automatic record clearance—where states initiate and complete the clearance of all eligible records—the standard across the country. When this happens, those impacted can move forward with their lives.