Pennsylvania Leads The Country On Pro-Jobs Criminal Justice Policy Again, General Assembly Sends Clean Slate Expansion to Governor

Harrisburg, PA (December 14, 2023) – The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed House Bill 689, a bill allowing the sealing of low-level, nonviolent felonies, sponsored by Representatives Jordan Harris (D-Phila.) and Sheryl Delozier (R-Cumberland), and led by Senators Lisa Baker and Anthony Williams in the Senate. The effort builds on Pennsylvania’s 2018 framework to expand automated expungements to more Pennsylvanians who have proven they can remain crime free. After a 47-3 vote in the Senate and 153-50 concurrence vote in the House, the bill now heads to Governor Shapiro’s desk for his signature.

The Justice Action Network, the country’s largest organization focused on bipartisan criminal justice reform policy and advocacy at the state and federal level, issued the following statement: 

“Today, Pennsylvania made history once again,” said Jenna Bottler, executive director of Justice Action Network. “This bill reinforces Pennsylvania’s status as a leader on pro-jobs criminal justice policy that puts public safety and the economy first, and builds on Pennsylvania’s experience that Clean Slate works. We applaud longtime trailblazers Representative Delozier, Representative Harris, Senator Baker, Senator Williams and Senator Bartolotta for shepherding this policy to the floor and to Governor Shapiro’s desk, and encourage him to promptly sign this Clean Slate expansion into law.” 

The law is a major win for bipartisan criminal justice reform and is supported by a broad coalition of state lawmakers, national policy experts, both conservative and progressive advocates, the Pennsylvania business community, and law enforcement, along with the general public. Polling conducted earlier this year shows that more than 81% of Pennsylvanians support adding low-level drug convictions to the state’s automated record-sealing framework.

The original 2018 Clean Slate law made Pennsylvania a leader in the nation. Since then, eleven other states have followed suit with their own automated expungement systems, including Michigan, where policymakers went a step further to include low-level felonies in the list of offenses eligible for set aside without a petition. 

At the federal level, Clean Slate measures were recently introduced in the House, co-sponsored by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), and advocates are optimistic that Washington lawmakers will observe what’s working well in the states and follow suit.