• Project Clean Slate has changed thousands of Detroiters’ lives by removing barriers to opportunity that had existed for many decades  
• Program removes barriers to opportunity, opening pathways to higher paying jobs  
• Milestone celebration coincides with April being Second Chance Month  

Mayor Mary Sheffield today helped to celebrate a transformational City program that has helped to change the trajectory of thousands of Detroiters’ lives.  Project Clean Slate (PCS), first launched in 2016, was developed to help Detroiters move beyond one of their most difficult barriers to opportunity – a past criminal conviction – so they can move forward in life.  

Sheffield said that Project Clean Slate recently passed a major milestone of having successfully expunged its 20,000th conviction.  Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared April as Second Chance Month three years ago to raise awareness about reducing the barriers to employment, housing, and education for those with criminal convictions on their record.  

Project Clean Slate first began in 2016 to begin tackling a seemingly insurmountable task of addressing the tens of thousands of Detroiters whose opportunities in life had been stifled due to past mistakes – some of the decades old – that were still on their record as criminal convictions.  

“I’ve always been a firm believer that when you make a mistake and pay your debt to society, that mistake should not be held against you forever – but that’s what was happening,” said Mayor Sheffield. “Thanks to Project Clean Slated, thousands of Detroiters who couldn’t access that better job or that better housing situation, no longer have that barrier standing their way and lives are being changed every day.”

According to a recent report on the program, program participants typically see an average wage increase of 23% one year after their expungement has been completed.  

Tens of thousands more Detroiters are eligible for criminal record expungement.  However, many of them do not seek expungement because they do not know they are eligible or do not know how to navigate the process, said program director Stephani LaBelle.  

“Our job is to make this process as easy as possible for these Detroiters,” said LaBelle. “It’s hard enough to have to carry the weight of a past conviction, so the Project Clean Slate team does all the heavy work to help relieve that burden. All they have to do is to reach out.”

PCS helps remove barriers by determining whether applicants are eligible for expungement, and if so, increasing the likelihood of a successful application by providing dedicated attorney support. PCS staff and attorneys handle all steps of the expungement process - from preparing the expungement application to representing clients at court hearings.  

Project Clean Slate (PCS) currently has 4,000 open and eligible convictions in process and/or ready to be expunged.  

Who is eligible  

Thousands of Detroiters are eligible for criminal record expungement. However, many of them do not seek expungement because they do not know they are eligible or do not know how to navigate the process. PCS helps Detroit residents remove those barriers by determining whether applicants are eligible for expungement, and if so, increasing the likelihood of a successful application by providing dedicated attorney support. 

How it works  

The expungement process is complex and involves many steps with several entities - the courts, Michigan State Police, the Attorney General’s Office, and multiple prosecutors. The process also requires applicants to provide fingerprints as a part of the process. PCS staff and attorneys handle all steps of the expungement process - from preparing the expungement application to representing clients at court hearings.    

PCS has leveraged its place within city government to partner with other city/county agencies to streamline the process. For example:

• The Detroit Police Department permits PCS to meet clients at a precinct weekly to sign expungement paperwork and take advantage of DPD’s fingerprinting services – for free.  
• The 3rd Circuit Court and Wayne County Clerk’s Office permitted Registers of Action to be used in place of decades old orders, which were often difficult to locate. The Clerk’s Office also changed its e-filing process to allow PCS to submit Orders and expungement applications via MiFile, the State’s e-filing system. These changes have streamlined the process immensely.  
• The Michigan State Police provide PCS free use of the Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT) - typically $10/record.  
• Various courts also provide certified records to PCS at no cost.

Impact of 2021 Expungement Legislation  

The prior expungement statute was restrictive; fewer than 10% of applicants were eligible. In 2019, the City worked with a bi-partisan group of state legislators to reform the state’s expungement law. The reforms greatly expanded the number and types of convictions eligible for expungement - more than doubling the number of Detroiters eligible. The bills were signed into law on October 12, 2020, and went into effect on April 11, 2021.  

Two years later, on April 11, 2023, a new section of the legislation took effect, which allows for automatic expungement of a certain number and type of convictions. Automatic expungement has been a huge benefit to the PCS team and their clients. It has sped up the timeline for filing other convictions and obliviated the need for hearings in many others.  

The new legislation created the opportunity for more Detroiters to benefit from PCS, and the enthusiasm for the program is high; over 30,000 Detroiters have registered for PCS since 2016. 

Year             Records Expunged                              

2016             0  

2017             9  

2018            119  

2019            263  

2020            294  

2021          730  

2022         1,724  

2023          5,329  

2024          4,832  

2025          5,567

2026          1,927 (Year to Date)

TOTAL 20,794