80,000 Records To Be Cleared As ​“Clean Slate” Takes Full Effect

Helen Caraballo is looking forward to attending nursing school while raising her five children and bouncing back from an otherwise ​“rough year” — with the knowledge that she’ll no longer have to keep looking backward at a decade-old, low-level felony conviction, which will soon be erased.

Caraballo, 35, was one of a a handful of speakers at a Monday press conference in Newhallville to celebrate the full, if delayed, implementation of the state’s Clean Slate law. 

That bill, signed by Gov. Ned Lamont in 2021, will automatically erase 178,499 low-level felony and misdemeanor convictions for more than 80,000 Connecticut residents by January. 

The law is aimed at bringing new beginnings to residents who face extreme difficulty getting housing, jobs, and access to higher education as a result of having criminal records, regardless of how old those convictions are.

This marks the second wave of cleared criminal records under the Clean Slate bill, which also saw 43,754 low-level cannabis possession convictions erased this past January.

Gov. Ned Lamont stopped by Newhallville’s Community Baptist Church on Shelton Avenue Monday to join Caraballo and CONECT, a collective of faith leaders focused on social justice issues, to announce the coming erasure of thousands upon thousands of old convictions.

Leaders at the forefront of Monday’s presser included Community Baptist Church Rev. Philippe Andal, Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut Chair Rodney Moore, civil rights attorney Philip Kent, New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield, American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut Senior Policy Organizer Anderson Curtis, Clean Slate Initiative Vice President Jason Cooper, Mayor Justin Elicker, Bridgeport State Rep. Steven Stafstrom, and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz. 

Leaders declared the implementation of the law as a step toward justice, second chances, and redemption for formerly incarcerated Connecticut residents. 

Kent reported that Connecticut was the fourth state to adopt a clean slate law. Now a total of 12 states have similar laws in place.

Lamont’s office sent out an email press release on Monday explaining and celebrating the bill’s full implementation. That press release read in part: ​“The Clean Slate Law was adopted to remove barriers to jobs, education, and housing that people who have been convicted of low-level offenses have often faced, provided that they have completed their sentences and have remained crime-free for a specified number of years. The goal is to empower people to advance their careers, obtain stable housing, and experience the successful second chance they’ve earned.”

The presser took place a year after many of these same local and statewide leaders, minus the governor, gathered in this same Newhallville church to criticize the governor for the delayed implementation of the law. On Monday, speakers clarified that the delay was due to getting state agencies along with criminal justice system stakeholders to perform significant computer-related upgrades that allowed for the identification and automatic erasure of eligible convictions. 

Winfield repeated throughout Monday’s conference: ​“Thank God we’re going to implement this.” 

The majority of cleared records are expected to be complete by the end of January 2024.

Lamont’s press release stated that record erasure ​“does not mean deletion or destruction; instead, erasure causes a record to be flagged for nondisclosure to anyone other than the clerk holding the records.”

“There is a lot of work to do which includes what we do before we ever get here,” Winfield said on Monday.

Lamont said we all deserve a second chance, and that he aims to make Connecticut a ​“first chance state.” 

Caraballo, who spoke at Monday’s presser, is one New Havener who will benefit from the Clean Slate bill’s full implementation.

She is looking to move up from her current certified nursing assistant (CNA) work but must go to nursing school to do so. This has been a difficult task to pursue as she has been rebuilding her life and has struggled to get work, in part because of a low-level drug conspiracy felony conviction on her record from 12 years ago. 

She described the erasure law as the best Christmas gift she could ask for. 

Lamont told Caraballo Monday that ​“this is not a Christmas present but something you have earned.” 

As a result of her decade-old conviction Caraballo got a suspended prison sentence. She said that ​“since then, I have been serving another sentence — not the one that the judge imposed, but one that has been very real with employers, landlords, schools and professions.”

Bysiewicz reported Monday that Connecticut has 100,000 open job positions and ​“we have this incredible opportunity to fill those jobs with determined, tenacious people who want to show that they’ve learned from their mistakes, that they are ready to be productive citizens and help their families but also help our state.” 

Caraballo concluded that ​“I am no longer who I was 12 years ago.” 

Also in attendance Monday was New Haven native Kenneth Bruce, 53, who has a criminal record from 20 years ago. Bruce said because of this he’s spent the past two decades being denied jobs and housing. He said he’s spent more than 20 years submitting applications to Yale and has never once gotten an interview. 

Bruce said he now works three jobs as a licensed chef. 

While he shared he has no plans to petition to get his record erased, he is working around the city to encourage other formerly incarcerated New Haveners to see if they are eligible to. 

He emphasized that reentry programming has failed him and many others in the city and so he’s taken it upon himself to help others pave their way to new beginnings. 

See below for Lamont’s press release in full, which details exactly who is eligible to have their criminal records erased under this law

GOVERNOR LAMONT ANNOUNCES THOUSANDS OF OLD, LOW-LEVEL CONVICTIONS IN CONNECTICUT SET TO BE AUTOMATICALLY ERASED OVER THE NEXT MONTH UNDER FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF CLEAN SLATE LAW

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that more than 80,000 people in Connecticut are expected to have convictions for certain old, low-level offenses automatically cleared from their criminal records over the next month as the state nears full implementation of the recently enacted Clean Slate Law.

Approved by the Connecticut General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Lamont in 2021, the Clean Slate Law was adopted to remove barriers to jobs, education, and housing that people who have been convicted of low-level offenses have often faced, provided that they have completed their sentences and have remained crime-free for a specified number of years. The goal is to empower people to advance their careers, obtain stable housing, and experience the successful second chance they’ve earned.

“Turning your life around after making a mistake isn’t easy, but many people who’ve been convicted of low-level offenses and haven’t committed any other crimes find those convictions haunting them for decades, sometimes leading to situations in which they are unable to obtain employment, are prevented from finding a place to live, or are denied educational opportunities,” Governor Lamont said. ​“The idea that minor crimes should remain a part of someone’s permanent record is outdated, ineffective, and can cause more harm than good. Connecticut’s Clean Slate Law is about removing barriers that prevent people from leading successful and productive lives.”

To implement the law and provide for the automated erasure of criminal records, staff from Connecticut’s judicial branch and executive branch state agencies along with criminal justice system stakeholders have worked over the last two and a half years to perform intensive information technology system upgrades that allow criminal justice agencies to identify eligible convictions and then erase them in an automated manner pursuant to the Clean Slate Law. That system is now live and over the next month, people who meet the Clean Slate Law’s eligibility requirements will have their offenses automatically erased from their records. No application or petition is required from those who meet the requirements.

It is expected that the system will initially identify for erasure approximately 178,499 offenses from more than 80,000 people. Record erasure does not mean deletion or destruction; instead, erasure causes a record to be flagged for nondisclosure to anyone other than the clerk holding the records.

The process to erase the vast majority of eligible records is expected to be completed by the end of January 2024.

Approximately 28,752 additional convictions for operation while under the influence (Connecticut General Statutes § 14 – 227a), for which Clean Slate eligibility was modified in the 2023 legislative session, are expected to be erased by the end of March 2024. Additionally, another group of approximately 62,364 convictions will require manual confirmation due to imperfections in historical data. Those convictions will be processed manually over the course of the first half of 2024.

The erasure of these old, low-level convictions comes in addition to the 43,754 low-level drug possession (mostly cannabis) convictions that the state already erased earlier this year pursuant to June 2021 Special Session Public Act 21 – 1, which legalized and safely regulates the adult-use of cannabis.

Eligibility for automated erasure of old, low-level offenses

People eligible for erasure of old, low-level offenses under the Clean Slate Law include those who have not had any other criminal convictions for seven or ten years (depending on the conviction to be erased), have completed sentences for all crimes for which that person has been convicted, and meet other eligibility criteria under the laws.

Eligible offenses include:

• Any classified or unclassified misdemeanor (imprisonment less than one year), with a seven-year waiting period from the person’s most recent conviction.
• Class D, E, or unclassified felonies (imprisonment less than five years), or operating under the influence (General Statutes § 14 – 227a), with a ten-year waiting period from the person’s most recent conviction.

To be automatically erased, the offense must have been committed on or after January 1, 2000. Earlier offenses may be erased via a petition to the courts under similar eligibility rules.

Some specific charges are excluded from erasure, as is any sexually violent offense and nonviolent sexual offense. Any offense designated as a family violence crime is also excluded. Convictions cannot be erased on a person’s record unless the person has no pending criminal charges and the person has completed all periods of incarceration, probation, and parole imposed since January 1, 2000.

Some of the most common felonies to be erased are burglary in the 3^rd degree, larceny in the 3^rd degree, and forgery in the 2^nd degree. Some of the most common misdemeanors to be erased are larceny in the 6^th degree (shoplifting), DUI, and failure to appear.

Eligibility for automated erasure of low-level cannabis possession offenses

Earlier this year, 43,754 convictions for low-level cannabis possession were automatically erased from people’s records under recently enacted provisions in the law that legalized adult-use cannabis. Certain other cannabis convictions can be erased with a court petition.

Convictions for violations of Connecticut General Statutes § 21a-279(c) imposed between January 1, 2000, and September 30, 2015, were automatically erased at the beginning of 2023. People who meet those criteria do not need to do anything to have those convictions erased.

Convictions for any of the following violations can be erased by petitioning the court:

• Convictions for violations of Connecticut General Statutes § 21a-279 for possession of less than or equal to 4 ounces of a cannabis-type substance imposed before January 1, 2000, and between October 1, 2015, and June 30, 2021.
• Convictions for violations of Connecticut General Statutes § 21a-267(a) for possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia for cannabis imposed before July 1, 2021.
• Convictions for violations of Connecticut General Statutes § 21a-277(b) imposed before July 1, 2021, for manufacturing, selling, possessing with intent to sell, or giving or administering to another person a cannabis-type substance and the amount involved was less than or equal to four ounces or six plants grown inside your home for personal use.

More information about the Clean Slate Law

The Clean Slate Law was adopted in Public Act 21 – 32 and then amended by Public Act 21 – 33, Public Act 22 – 26, Public Act 23 – 134, and Public Act 23 – 169.

For more detailed information about the law, visit portal.ct.gov/cleanslate.