• Program has grown from a handful of criminal record expungements in 2017 to 5,000 annually
• Council President Sheffield to speak and will announce that PCS has expunged 18,000 convictions since the program was created in 2016 
   

Project Clean Slate (PCS) in partnership with City Council President Mary Sheffield and are hosting an Expungement Clinic today from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Butzel Family Center, located at 7737 Kercheval. Individuals with past criminal convictions will be able to speak with Project Clean Slate attorneys and staff who will be able to determine their eligibility and assist with the process.

Council President Sheffield will speak to the group at 2:30 PM and announce the milestone of Project Clean Slate having expunged 18,000 past criminal offenses from the records of thousands of Detroit residents since the program launched in 2016.

PCS is a nationally recognized program and model for other cities. While other municipalities have programs that coordinate volunteer attorneys to conduct expungements, research conducted demonstrates that PCS is the only city-run program that employs full-time attorneys with the sole purpose of expunging records.

Year                       Records Expunged                            

2016                       0

2017                       8

2018                       119

2019                       263

2020                       294

2021                       730

2022                       1,724

2023                       5,338

2024                       5,029

2025                       4,743 (to date)

A staggering 90% of clients cited new or better employment opportunities as being the primary motivator for seeking expungement. Most PCS clients make less than $30,000 a year before expungement. Over half of the clients who reported a wage increase after expungement raised their income by at least $5,000 per year, and nearly a third of them made over $15,000 more per year.