by Hugh McQuaid CTNewsJunkie
After a year-long delay, Connecticut’s “Clean Slate” policy will be implemented next month, automatically clearing the criminal records of some 80,000 people convicted of certain low-level offenses, advocates and state policymakers announced Monday.
The policy, approved by the legislature in 2021, is intended to help formerly incarcerated people find employment, education and housing by sweeping away records of past indiscretions after a period of seven to 10 years. It applies to people convicted of misdemeanors, Class D and E felonies as well as some unclassified crimes.
The law was written to take effect on Jan. 1 of this year. However, it was delayed after the state Criminal Justice Information System Governing Board pointed to a series of questions, which complicated the policy’s implementation.
Since then, the state has completed $8 million in information technology upgrades to wipe the correct records, Marc Pelka, Gov. Ned Lamont’s undersecretary of criminal justice, said Monday.
“The idea that minor crimes should remain a part of someone’s permanent record is outdated, ineffective, and can cause more harm than good,” Lamont said in a press release. “Connecticut’s Clean Slate Law is about removing barriers that prevent people from leading successful and productive lives.”
By the end of January, the administration expects records of more than 178,000 convictions to be wiped clean, an erasure that follows the expungement of nearly 44,000 mostly cannabis-related convictions earlier this year.
Lamont and Judiciary Committee co-chairmen Sen. Gary Winfield and Rep. Steve Stafstrom was among the state policymakers to join faith leaders with the group CONECT at the Community Baptist Church in New Haven for a press conference streamed on the church’s YouTube page.
The Clean Slate law excludes people convicted of family violence crimes and sexual offenses that require sex offender registration.
Although he has supported similar policies, the governor was initially skeptical of the Clean Slate bill and sent lawmakers a letter articulating concerns that more felony convictions were not excluded from policy when he signed the bill.
During Monday’s press conference, Winfield expressed interest in expanding the policy to apply to more formerly incarcerated people.
“We left some folks behind when we did this policy,” he said. “We fought heavily to make sure we got some of those felonies. I’m here to tell you — some people won’t like to hear this — but until we’ve said that common sense approach applies to everyone, I ain’t done.”
While the administration expects that many of the eligible records will be wiped by the end of next month, some records will take longer to clear. Around 28,752 convictions related to driving under the influence are expected to be erased by the end of March and 62,364 convictions will require manual erasure due to imperfect data and are expected to be completed during the first half of next year, according to a press release.
Prior to the Clean Slate policy, a resident seeking to clear their record would be required to individually seek a pardon. In order to automatically clear the records, the state had to make significant investments in IT systems, which Pelka said were paid for through a combination of General Fund allocations, bonding and federal dollars.
“A technological bridge was what was created across criminal justice system agency systems that were never meant to be connected that way,” he said. “These pathways were built. Substantial investment. Substantial questions and challenges had to be addressed along the way.”