PA Looks To Expand Clean Slate Law To Give Convicts A Second Chance

PENNSYLVANIA — Newly proposed legislation in Pennsylvania would significantly expand the state's Clean Slate law to provide more individuals with criminal records a second chance.

House Bill 1826, which has bipartisan support in the legislature, would automatically seal low-level drug felony convictions after an individual goes 10 years without committing a crime.

The current Clean Slate law, most recently expanded in 2020, seals criminal records for things like second- and third-degree misdemeanors, misdemeanors punishable by two years or less in prison, summary convictions, and charges not resulting in convictions.

"This expansion has bipartisan support because everyone realizes that it’s not only the right thing to do for folks who have paid their debt to society and are on the right track, but it improves our communities and makes them safer by helping people reach higher levels of success and achievement," bill sponsor State Rep. Jordan Harris (D-Philadelphia) said in a statement.

The move comes shortly after Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman launched an effort to provide pardons to up to a thousand individuals with non-violent marijuana convictions.

State Rep. Sheryl Delozier (R-Cumberland) co-sponsored the bill with Harris.

“Four years ago, we took the first step in supporting residents who worked to reform their lives and earn a second chance,” Delozier said in a statement. “Across the Commonwealth, men and women have been eager to move on from their past, find work, stable housing and provide for their families.

With the 2020 update to the law, any restitution owed for convictions committed is not waived. The law also requires that when a person receives a pardon, that record is automatically sealed and if they receive a not-guilty verdict the record is expunged.

At the time, Gov. Wolf called Pennsylvania "a national model for commonsense, bipartisan criminal justice reforms by removing a significant barrier from obtaining a clean slate due to failure to be able to pay court costs."

Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate law has sealed more than 42 million total cases and nearly 63 million total offenses, according to state statistics.