Inside the ‘Clean Slate’ record-sealing movement growing in both red and blue states

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — Back in 2004, Sheena Meade was living in Florida as a single mother of four when she wrote an $87.26 check to pay for groceries.

But the check bounced. About two months later, two police officers came to her door and, to her surprise, arrested her in front of her children on a misdemeanor charge for writing a bad check.

It was her first offense, and the charge was ultimately dismissed after she entered a diversionary program, she said. In some ways, it “wasn’t a big deal,” Meade explained to CNN in a recent interview.

Yet over two decades later, that arrest remains on her record, impacting her ability to get a job, secure an apartment and even attend college, Meade said. Many applications ask her to explain any prior arrests or legal trouble, and she believes that misdemeanor likely turned up on background checks when she was applying for housing.

“It wasn’t until later when I started realizing, ‘Wait a minute, that’s why I can’t get this apartment? Because of this?’” she told CNN last month over coffee and avocado toast at the Renaissance New York Harlem Hotel.

Meade’s personal background now informs her work as the CEO of the Clean Slate Initiative, a nonprofit at the forefront of one of the most successful criminal reform movements in recent years.

The idea of “Clean Slate” laws is to help streamline the process of sealing or clearing past arrest and conviction records for those who have served their sentence, remain crime-free and are otherwise eligible. Every state already has laws on the books for such record-clearing, but the process is complicated and requires people to navigate a knotty legal system.

“The purest version of Clean Slate is taking something that somebody’s already entitled to and making it automatic,” said Marc Levin, the chief policy counsel of the Council on Criminal Justice think tank.

The pitch has proven its bipartisan appeal, unlike some other criminal reform movements that have seen a rapid rise and backlash in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. In the past decade, “Clean Slate” laws have passed in 13 states across the political spectrum, ranging from blue states like New York to purple states like Pennsylvania to red states like Oklahoma. Over 18 million people now have a pathway to full or partial record clearance in those states and Washington, DC due to these changes.

The Clean Slate Initiative has spearheaded these efforts, growing to a staff of over 40 people under Meade. The nonprofit’s five-year plan is to pass Clean Slate laws in 25 states – and Meade wants to go through the process of getting her own record cleared in Florida.

Meade is married to Desmond Meade, the MacArthur “Genius” Grant winner who led Florida’s constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to former felons. She said working with him on that effort led her to reflect more deeply on how her arrest has impacted her life.

“I always tell people I’ve turned my pain into purpose,” Meade said. “Everything I’ve been through in life, I’ve been able to find some type of purpose in it, or push policy towards it.”

How an arrest became a scarlet letter

About 28% of adults in America – nearly one in three US adults – have an arrest record as of 2019, according to the Clean Slate Initiative.

Even for those who were not convicted of any crime, that past record can restrict their opportunity. The vast majority of employers and landlords use background checks to screen out candidates with records, making it more difficult to find a job or housing. In other cases, people with records may decide to avoid applying at all.

For example, when Meade applied to the University of Central Florida, she was required to go to campus and fill out specific paperwork explaining her arrest. More recently, when she tried to chaperone her son’s field trip to Sea World, she had to fill out a form that asked about her arrest record. After seeing that question, she decided against attending at all.

“I think people get so caught up thinking, when they hear about the work that I do, they automatically think about people who’ve been incarcerated or convicted, not even arrested,” she said. “People are facing barriers just from being arrested.”

In the modern tech age, that record has a way of following people around long afterward, creating a lifetime scarlet letter out of a youthful arrest, Levin explained.

“I think historically we just kind of stumbled accidentally into a world of lifetime criminal records available to everybody,” he said.

How ‘Clean Slate’ laws work

States have a legal process in which people can petition the courts to seal or expunge old arrests or convictions, depending on the seriousness of the offense and after a certain period of time. But to do so, a person has to petition a court, fill out paperwork, and pay certain fees – a series of steps that often requires hiring an attorney.

Understandably, the vast majority of people who are eligible for record-clearing don’t go through that process, Levin explained. (Meade herself has not.)

Enter Clean Slate laws. At the heart of these laws is an attempt to shift the burden of responsibility from the people to the government.

The goal of the Clean Slate Initiative is to automate that process of clearing old records for those eligible. With the courts leading that process, millions of people will have their records automatically cleared, freeing them to get better jobs, housing, and education.

Each state may implement Clean Slate laws differently, depending on the balance between public safety and the desire for second chances.

States have generally applied Clean Slate to non-violent, low-level offenses like writing a bad check, drug possession or public drunkenness. At the same time, these states have often carved out exceptions so that serious felonies and sex crimes are not eligible to be sealed.

“As time goes on, and somebody has proven themselves by living in the community without re-offending over several years, the benefits of them being employed and having stable living – of not having that burden of the criminal record – are going to outweigh any benefit that would come to society by having a public record of that offense,” Levin said.

Appeal to blue states and red states

Clean Slate has had some success in appealing to both red and blue states.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed the state’s Clean Slate law in 2022, and earlier this year signed a similar law building on those efforts to streamline the record-clearing process.

State Rep. Nicole Miller, a Republican who introduced the 2022 House bill, emphasized its job-creating ability. “We’re struggling with workforce, and it makes sense to get Oklahomans back to work,” she told CNN affiliate KOCO in 2022.

Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a centrist Democrat, signed Clean Slate into law in 2023 and highlighted its benefits for the economy and for justice.

“It’s a victory for common sense and moral decency. It’s a victory for anyone who believes in economic progress and a just society. It’s a victory for anyone who wants to make sure our communities are safe and vibrant,” she said. “I’m so proud, minutes from now, to sign the Clean Slate Act and give businesses the help they need and give millions of New Yorkers the second chance they deserve.”

Missouri could soon become the 14th state to pass Clean Slate, as the legislature has sent a bill to Gov. Mike Kehoe for signature.

Yet there have been setbacks, too. Maine Gov. Janet Mills vetoed Clean Slate legislation last month, saying the bill should not seal records of domestic violence assault, could violate the First Amendment and would be costly. The Clean Slate Initiative said Mills’ concerns were based on “misunderstandings” of the law.

Transparency groups have also expressed concerns that Clean Slate laws could seal important records from the public. The DC Open Government Coalition, for example, warned in 2021 the law “would undercut the public’s First Amendment right and ability to serve as a watchdog on government activity.”

Meade said she believes Clean Slate laws have found success across the political spectrum because everyone knows someone who has been arrested and has had long-term consequences for it.

“It’s so common,” she said. “It has no respect of political affiliation. You can’t polarize it, I don’t think.”

She emphasizes slightly different points depending on the audience – justice for liberals, redemption for conservatives – but overall sticks to the same message: “People over politics.”

Further, Levin acknowledged Clean Slate is more of an “incremental” reform than some criminal justice activists would prefer and is tailored to each state’s existing laws. He said he sees that as a strength.

“From my perspective, when you do something that’s incremental but significant, and it works, and you can show it works, you can come back and ask for more,” he said.

Destiny Garcia, the executive director of Clean Slate Utah, said she was arrested for “poverty crimes” years ago while addicted to drugs. After getting clean, she struggled to get a job and apartment until she got an opportunity to work with the Salt Lake County government.

“The Clean Slate movement has provided true freedom,” she said in a testimonial on YouTube. “True freedom not only for me, but for my children, for my family, and for many, many people in my community.”

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