close

Advocates, lawmakers look back on one year anniversary of Clean Slate Law

2 min read
1 / 2

Bartolotta

2 / 2

Gov. Tom Wolf

One year ago, Pennsylvania became the first state to initiate a law to clear criminal records using automation, sealing nearly 35 million cases in the process.

The Clean Slate Act also expanded criminal record sealing to include more types of offenses, including some first-degree misdemeanors, which can be sealed by filing petitions.

“What a wonderful first step this is,” said Gov. Tom Wolf said during a Tuesday press conference. “Everybody is really pleased with the results.”

The law created an automated computer process to seal arrests that did not result in convictions within 60 days, summary convictions after 10 years and some second and third-degree misdemeanor convictions if there are no subsequent misdemeanor or felony convictions for a period of 10 years after the time of conviction.

The automatic sealing provision went into effect June 28, 2019.

Applicants must have been conviction-free for 10 years and owe no outstanding costs or fines to be eligible.

Pennsylvania State Court Administrator Geoff Moulton said 36,735 individuals have had Clean Slate applied to a misdemeanor conviction, 1,148,696 individuals have had the act applied to their record, which includes misdemeanor convictions, summary convictions and non-conviction dispositions, and 2,062,108 offense tracking numbers have had Clean Slate applied to that arrest.

“This has made a tremendous effect in the lives of Pennsylvanians,” Moulton said.

Moulton said they went as far back as 1968 for the records-sealing effort, which took approximately 35,000 hours of staff time to make that happen.

Wolf said the law has caused someone with a minor offense or even a brush with the law not to serve a life sentence in terms of not being able to find work, find housing and more because of a past criminal transgression.

“I’m proud that Pennsylvania is leading the way in second chances and excited to see our Clean Slate Law serve as a national model for commonsense, bipartisan criminal justice reforms.” Wolf said.

Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township, who participated via phone while on her way to the state Senate floor, said much like her bills on probation reform and dignity for incarcerated women, the automatic sealing will both improve lives and bring people back into the workforce.

For more information on the Clean Slate Law, visit www.mycleanslatepa.com.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today