Criminal Justice
The challenge
For too many people, a criminal record is a barrier to employment, housing, education, and more.
One in three people in the US today are living with a criminal record that appears on a routine background check. That record often makes it harder for someone to find a job, keep a roof over their head, and engage in other essential elements of life.
Nearly every state has laws that allow people to petition to clear their criminal records after a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, these processes are complicated and burdensome—and often costly. For people with low incomes, expensive legal assistance and court fees can make this process nearly impossible. As a result, few people eligible for record clearance ever obtain the relief they need.
Criminal Record Audio Series
Learn more about the impact of a criminal record
70 million
adults in the US have a criminal record
94%
of employers use background checks to screen out applicants with records
10%
of eligible people successfully clear their records through petition-based systems
The opportunity
Code for America is working to make automatic record clearance a reality across the country.
Under automatic record clearance policies—also known as Clean Slate laws—government initiates and completes the record clearance process. Unlike petition-based processes, automatic record clearance provides relief to people with a criminal record without requiring them to submit paperwork and navigate a complicated and costly process.
Automatic record clearance is the most effective way to remove the barriers created by criminal records, but only if policies can be implemented successfully. To unlock the transformative potential of automatic record clearance, policies must address technical implementation needs from the start.
What is automatic record clearance?
Automatic record clearance is a method for clearing criminal records that does not require an individual to file a request for record clearance. Instead, a government agency automatically clears a person’s record as soon as possible in accordance with state law. Code for America works with states to both design automatic clearance policies and offer technical solutions to implementation challenges they may face.
Our impact
Changing lives through automatic record clearance
Automatic record clearance landscape
States where Code for America has advised on policy
Other states with automatic record clearance policies
Automatic record clearance policy passed
Code for America is working to advance automatic record clearance so that every criminal record can be cleared by government as soon as it’s eligible. We do this by surfacing and solving implementation challenges while advocates are designing Clean Slate policies, then providing technical guidance to agencies during implementation. We’ve worked with advocates and agencies in more than 20 states to design workable policies and provide technical solutions. In the 11 states we’ve worked in that have passed Clean Slate policies, we anticipate that more than 11 million people will have their records cleared, making it easier for them to secure living wage jobs, pursue an education, and find quality housing.
We’ve worked with advocates and agencies in more than 20 states to design workable policies and provide technical solutions.
20 states
including 11 of the 12 states that have passed Clean Slate laws
480,000
people
11 million
people
In 2016, Code for America launched an online intake tool to connect people with the legal aid they needed to navigate California’s petition-based expungement process. With this tool, our team helped 27,000 people get connected to legal aid services.
In 2018, we shifted our focus to automatic record clearance with the goal of re-envisioning the record clearance process overall. We began by partnering with five California counties to develop technology to help automatically clear eligible cannabis convictions.
When a law passed that mandated all of California to clear cannabis convictions, we expanded this technology to serve the whole state. This technology ultimately helped clear 144,000 convictions statewide.
In 2019, we expanded beyond California to help states across the country design and put technically implementable policies into effect. Since then, we’ve worked in over 20 states, including 11 of the 12 that have successfully passed Clean Slate policies.
In 2022, we announced a successful partnership with Utah to help implement their Clean Slate policy, with hundreds of thousands of records cleared.
In 2025, the momentum continues across the country. At least seven states have active Clean Slate policies moving through their legislatures and Code for America continues to support the automatic record clearance movement.
Resources
Stories
Ready to implement an automatic record clearance policy in your state?