Earlier this month, Governor Ned Lamont announced the long-awaited implementation of the state’s so-called “Clean Slate Act” – sort of. According to a recent press release, January 1, 2023 will see the full or partial erasure in some 44,000 cases involving convictions for cannabis possession. Individuals with eligible convictions for other crimes, including most misdemeanors and certain lesser felonies, will have to wait until the second half of 2023 as a result of implementation delays.
The Clean Slate Law & How it Works
Enacted in 2021, Clean Slate seeks to remove barriers to employment for eligible individuals convicted of certain low-level crimes, who have completed their sentence and have had no further involvement with the criminal justice system since their release, by setting forth a process for erasure of conviction records for most misdemeanor convictions and some felony convictions after a specified period.
Clean Slate provides for the automatic erasure of certain criminal records, including for offenses that have been de-criminalized (such as adult-use cannabis possession was in 2021), thereby eliminating the costly, time-consuming and cumbersome process of requesting expungement through the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole for low-level offenses. The law also streamlines the process for expungement of other crimes through application to the Superior Court for convictions prior to January 1, 2000.
The law also added some new protections to those whose...
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