Looking for a reason to support Clean Slate legislation? There are many.

The proposal to expand who is eligible for an expungement of their criminal record and to automate the process of those expungements has many supporters, including the business community, faith community, criminal justice reform researchers and reformers as well as people who have been formerly incarcerated.

Here are some good reasons to back Clean Slate for Michigan.

 

For a list of references on these facts and figures, look below the infographic:

  1. Michigan will face a deficit of 811,000 skill trades workers by 2024: See the Detroit Free Press quoting Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget’s Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives, https://www.freep.com/story/sponsor-story/mi-apprenticeships/2018/08/30/panelists-agree-bridging-states-talent-gap-vital-its-economic-future/1126661002/
  2. Wages of a formerly incarcerated person increase 25 percent two years after an expungement See the J.J. Prescott and Sonja B. Starr report, “Expungement of Criminal Convictions: An Empirical Study,” Page 1 (abstract), http://bit.ly/PrescottStar
  3. Formerly incarcerated employees are more loyal and have lower turnover: See the ACLU’s “Back to Business: How Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Job Seekers Benefits Your Company,” https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/060917-trone-reportweb_0.pdf
  4. Underemployment of formerly incarcerated people costs the economy $78 billion to $87 billion in GDP annually: See “Criminal Records and Underemployment: The Impact on the Economy,” https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/2071-criminal-records-and-unemployment-the-impact-on
  5. Employing formerly incarcerated people fights crime. See “Immediate Access to Employment Reduces Recidivism,” https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/06/11/immediate_access_to_employment_reduces_recidivism_126939.html

~Barbara Wieland

Communications Specialist