clean slate facts – Clean Slate Connecticut

This page explains what Clean Slate is, who is eligible, and its importance.

What Is Clean Slate?

Clean Slate will automatically erase some criminal convictions of people who have returned to the community after incarceration and who remain crime-free for a specific period of time (the length of time depends on whether the conviction is a misdemeanor or a felony).

Who is eligible?

People with misdemeanor and lower-level felony records will be eligible after seven and ten years respectively (except for sex, family violence, and firearm charges). For a person with multiple convictions on their record, some convictions may be eligible for erasure, and some may not. Don’t assume that if one conviction is eligible for a person, that every conviction for that person is eligible for erasure.

What convictions will be erased?

Certain low-level felonies (class D and E) after ten years from the conviction, and misdemeanors after seven years from the conviction. The new law does not allow for the erasure of class A, B, or C felonies, and also family violence crimes or certain sex offender crimes requiring registration.

What does it mean if a conviction is erased?

If all your convictions have been erased, you are legally entitled to say that you do not have a criminal record. If your conviction or convictions are erased, and a potential employer asks you about it, you are allowed to say that you were not arrested or convicted. If any of your convictions have not been erased, you cannot legally claim that you do not have a criminal record.Clean Slate will automatically erase some criminal convictions of people who have returned to the community after incarceration and who remain crime-free for a specific period of time (the length of time depends on whether the conviction is a misdemeanor or a felony).

Why is Clean Slate important?

Prior to the Clean Slate law being passed, the only way to apply for erasure in Connecticut has been through the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles. The application process is burdensome, costly, bureaucratic, and subjective. Clean Slate legislation is the much needed automatic solution, in contrast to the long pardon application process.

Clean Slate is a racial justice issue.

In Connecticut, Black people are 9.4x more likely than white people to be incarcerated, and Latinx people are 3.9x more likely to be incarcerated than white people. The effects of systemic racism on incarceration will persist for decades without Clean Slate.

Clean Slate improves public safety.

When people’s records are erased, they become stable citizens with access to jobs, housing, and higher education. As a result, the tendency to reoffend is dramatically reduced. This makes everyone safer.

Clean Slate boosts the economy.

One 2016 study estimates that the collective national impact of the shackles of a criminal record reduces our GDP each year between $78 billion and $87 billion. Based on Connecticut’s population, this means the loss of between $859 million and $958 million in economic activity each year in our state. Clean Slate will create job opportunities for thousands of CT residents, thereby expanding our state’s economic growth.
An estimated 200-300,000 people in Connecticut will benefit once it is fully implemented with greater access to jobs, housing, educational programs, professional licenses, and more. Clean Slate is a victory for racial justice, community safety, and economic growth.

Read Connecticut Public Act 21-32 known as the Clean Slate Law.