{"id":36131,"date":"2020-10-19T17:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=36131"},"modified":"2020-10-19T18:21:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T22:21:26","slug":"michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan prepares to automate expungement of criminal records"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan will begin automating the clearance of criminal records for some state residents within the next six months, and make it easier for others to apply for expungement over the next two years, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signing of a series of bills last week\u00a0endorsed by criminal justice advocacy groups and the civic-tech group Code for America\u2019s \u201cClear My Record\u201d program.<\/p>\n

The \u201cClean Slate\u201d bill, Whitmer said, will ensure that Michigan residents who haven\u2019t committed a misdemeanor in the past seven years or a felony in the last 10 years can expunge their criminal records easily and cheaply.<\/p>\n

Previously, Michigan only cleared the records of 6.5% of people who qualified for expungement within five years of becoming eligible, according to a University of Michigan Law School study<\/a>. With at least 787 laws on the state\u2019s books that prevent felons and former criminals from getting a job, housing or an education, according to criminal justice reform group Safe and Just Michigan, simplifying the expungement process is a huge win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a milestone in state criminal record-sealing policy that will help hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan and help drive the national conversation on reform forward,\u201d the group’s executive director, John S. Cooper, said in a press release.<\/p>\n

Whitmer called it a “historic day” for Michigan.<\/p>\n

“These bipartisan bills are a game changer for people who are seeking opportunities for employment, housing, and more, and they will help ensure a clean slate for hundreds of thousands of Michiganders,\u201d she said in the press release. \u201cThis is also an opportunity to grow our workforce and expand access to job training and education for so many people.”<\/p>\n

Outside of expunging records for felons, the laws will treat multiple felonies or misdemeanors from the same incident as a single felony or misdemeanor and allow people to set aside at least one marijuana-related offense if it wouldn\u2019t have been a crime under the state\u2019s new recreational marijuana laws.<\/p>\n

While the initiative was championed by criminal justice groups, it\u2019s also the latest success for Code for America\u2019s digital automation tool, called Clear My Record. The technology analyzes criminal history data in bulk and determines automatically who is eligible to have their records cleared in accordance with recent criminal-justice reforms.<\/p>\n

Organizers at Safe and Just Michigan said Michigan’s new legislation will improve the economic outlook for people who qualify. The\u00a0Michigan Law School study found that the incomes of people whose records are cleared increased by 23% within the first year after expungement.<\/p>\n

The tool, created in 2016, has also been used by numerous state and local governments, including California, San Francisco,\u00a0Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cook County, Illinois<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signing of recent criminal-justice reform bills notches another victory for Code for America’s “Clear My Record” program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":36140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4677],"tags":[160,5128,2863,1853],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4698],"class_list":["post-36131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","tag-michigan","tag-gretchen-whitmer","tag-clear-my-record","tag-code-for-america","author-ryan-johnston"],"yoast_head":"\nMichigan prepares to automate expungement of criminal records | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michigan prepares to automate expungement of criminal records | StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's signing of recent criminal-justice reform bills notches another victory for Code for America's "Clear My Record" program.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-19T21:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-19T22:21:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-924058482.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2121\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1414\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Johnston\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RCJ__96\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/\",\"name\":\"Michigan prepares to automate expungement of criminal records | StateScoop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-924058482.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-19T21:12:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-19T22:21:26+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-924058482.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-924058482.jpg\",\"width\":2121,\"height\":1414,\"caption\":\"(Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/\",\"name\":\"StateScoop\",\"description\":\"Latest news and events in state and local government technology\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"StateScoop\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/StateScoop-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/StateScoop-Black.png\",\"width\":1470,\"height\":186,\"caption\":\"StateScoop\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/State_Scoop\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/statescoop\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@StateScoop\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Michigan prepares to automate expungement of criminal records | StateScoop","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/michigan-prepares-to-automate-expungement-of-criminal-records\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Michigan prepares to automate expungement of criminal records | StateScoop","og_description":"Gov. 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