The Clean Slate Initiative works with state and local partners to pass and implement laws that automatically seal eligible records for people who have completed their sentence and remained crime-free. The vision that drives our work is that people will no longer be defined by their records and will have the opportunity to contribute to their community, have a fair opportunity to work, get an education, and achieve their full potential.
Arrest and conviction records are widespread and impact every community across the country. One in 3 adults in the United States has an arrest or conviction record, and 25% of adults in Oklahoma have a past arrest or conviction record, most often for old arrests, acquittals, or lower-level convictions. These records limit a person's ability to work, obtain housing, and engage in civic life.
Having a record, even just an arrest record, is a significant barrier to economic mobility. Specifically, having an arrest or conviction record reduces a job seeker’s chance of getting a callback or job offer by nearly 50%.
Traditional petition-based record sealing is often time-consuming, costly, and confusing. Filing a petition to seal a record and allow individuals to improve their access to jobs, housing, and education is so difficult that fewer than 10% of people get their records sealed within five years of becoming eligible.
Clean Slate cuts through all of that red tape: with Clean Slate policies, when an old arrest or conviction record becomes eligible for sealing, it happens through a government-initiated, automated system. Once the person has earned their second chance, they don’t have to jump through hoops to access it. To date, 13 states, plus Washington D.C., have passed Clean Slate legislation. Because of those laws, more than 18 million people in America are on the path to full or partial record sealing through these policies — and we’re working on expanding that impact nationwide.
AN OKLAOMA "FIX BILL" PASSED TO CLEAR OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS
Clean Slate became law in Oklahoma in 2022, with the promise of delivering second chances for approximately 300,000 Oklahomans by creating automated record sealing processes. The 2022 bill set up a deadline to put these processes in place by November 2025.
Unfortunately, Oklahoma agencies faced challenges on the path to successful implementation, which left Oklahomans who have already earned a second chance still bearing the weight of the wait — still facing closed doors to opportunities and living without the relief of the second chance they’ve already earned. But there’s good news.
A "fix bill" (SB 2030) passed through the state legislature with overwhelming support, and was swiftly signed into law by Governor Stitt in 2026, which was designed to address the state’s implementation challenges head-on by making the automated sealing process more efficient, streamlined and automated – while also doing more to protect public safety.
Leveraging lessons learned and best practices from other states, the bill put Oklahoma on the right track towards keeping a promise made when the original Clean Slate bill was enacted. SB 2030 was written in deep collaboration by many partners, government agency staff members, and elected leaders, and incorporated the technical and agency needs of the state police and district attorneys to ensure Clean Slate becomes a reality sooner, rather than later, in the Sooner State.
SB 2030 creates efficient processes, allows law enforcement to see sealed records for public safety purposes, and creates new deadlines for implementation of Clean Slate that are both realistic and effective:
- The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation must begin sealing records through the Clean Slate process by November 2027, and
- Records that were eligible for Clean Slate as of November 2027 must be sealed by November 2029.
Finally, once Clean Slate is fully implemented, hundreds of thousands of eligible Oklahomans who remain crime-free for a specific number of years will have barriers to employment removed, expanding the workforce and boosting the economy.
Clean Slate policies in Oklahoma are extremely popular with bipartisan voters and strongly supported by legislators. In a 2025 CPAC poll, 87% of Oklahoma voters said that they supported the 2022 Clean Slate law, and 80% of voters said they would support allowing more people with old criminal records who have remained crime-free in the community to be eligible for Clean Slate policies.
LESSIONS LERNED IN OKLAHOMA
The promise of Clean Slate remains a priority for Oklahomans — from members of the Legislature, advocates across the political spectrum, law enforcement leaders, and to people remaining crime-free and waiting to experience the life-altering impact of record sealing. Through this process, we learned that effective, impactful policy must include the perspectives of the government agency leaders who are most familiar with their systems and their needs, and policies must be designed with those needs and recommendations in mind. Working closely with leaders across sectors builds strong policy that can be put in place and achieve real results, and leadership is needed inside and outside of agencies to deliver change for community members. Together, we can accomplish a lot.
The public safety, economic, workforce, and educational access impacts of record sealing are benefits that leaders across the political spectrum can support. Clean Slate is a truly bipartisan issue that supports community health and safety, and can extend opportunities to members of every community. With strong partnership and enduring commitment to real outcomes, Oklahoma is firmly on the path to success.
Blog Post by Sarah Fajardo, Implementation Manager, The Clean Slate Initiative
