By Nila Bala

C lose to one-third of the population has a criminal record, with Michigan courts churning out nearly 300,000 convictions every year.Even a minor record can present an enormous barrier to employment, housing and educational opportunities. Those with criminal records face unemployment numbers that exceed those during the great depression. Moreover, both public and private housing can be hard to obtain, and the record of one family member can lead to eviction for everyone. Given these vast effects, carrying a criminal record has been equated to a life sentence of poverty. However, expungements or methods to seal records from public view (known as “set-asides” in Michigan) have great potential to ameliorate these effects. Like most states, Michigan has an expungement policy to help ease the barriers reentering individuals face because of their records. But unlike most states, Michigan has a wealth of information and data regarding the current state of set-asides, thanks to a recently published empirical study by J.J. Prescott and Sonja Starr at the University of Michigan Law School. Notably, their study finds that despite the fact that thousands of individuals are eligible for expungements, very few—just 6.5 percent of eligible Michiganders—have received relief. As part of a larger nationwide movement to utilize technology to automatically clear records, a current seven-bill “Clean Slate” package under consideration could change that.6 It would also increase the number of eligible offenses, for example, by including driving and marijuana offenses to the list of crimes that can be set-aside, and by forgiving individuals who have had multiple convictions because of one bad night. The bills have already passed the Michigan House with bipartisan support and are now in the hands of the Senate. Accordingly, this paper examines the current state of set asides and the implications of expanding expungement relief, including to public safety and the economy, and finds that even considering the short-term costs associated with automation, ultimately the benefits outweigh these costs.

R STREET SHORTS NO. 79 November 2019

Washington, DC: R Street, 2019. 4p.