On Wednesday, a diverse coalition of social justice organizations will travel to Springfield to advocate for the Clean Slate Act, which would help millions of Illinois residents hindered by past arrest and conviction records. The coalition hopes that Illinois lawmakers will pass the measure during the 104th General Assembly before the spring session ends.
The Clean Slate Illinois Coalition (CSIC), which is leading the effort, aims to streamline expungement and record sealing statewide. Advocates say the economic impact is projected to restore up to $4.7 billion in lost income to the Illinois economy, as people with sealed records could see an estimated 20% wage increase, according to CSIC.
For many impacted by the criminal justice system, the stigma of a conviction doesn’t end once their sentence is complete. A criminal record creates barriers to housing, jobs, and more, according to Antonio Lightfoot, who’s among those lobbying for the Clean Slate Act.
“When folks are sentenced for a crime, the government tells us, ‘OK, you did this crime. It deserves this much punishment.’ What it doesn’t tell us is that we’ll continue to be punished for the rest of our lives, being stopped from getting jobs, housing, and even from serving on our kids’ local school councils,” he said.
After serving a three-year sentence, Lightfoot struggled to find employment after his release in 2009. His incarceration sparked a commitment to advocating for incarcerated people’s rights.
Today, he’s deputy director at the Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments (ENDPP), an organization and campaign hub for people directly impacted by the criminal legal system. ENDPP is part of the coalition advocating for the Clean Slate Act.
In Illinois, there are more than 1,189 laws that punish people with criminal records indefinitely, most of which create barriers to employment, according to the 2020 report “Never Fully Free: The Scale and Impact of Permanent Punishments on People with Criminal Records in Illinois.”
Arrests can linger indefinitely, too, unlike credit history which disappears after seven years, Lightfoot noted.
Aisha Edwards has witnessed these barriers firsthand—both professionally and personally. She’s executive director of Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA) and has served as a defense attorney and an Assistant State’s Attorney for Cook County.
“I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to go to law school,” Edwards said, referring to her arrest 24 years ago for what she described as a racialized encounter with police, though she was never convicted. “I carried that fear until the day I was admitted. I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to pass the bar exam’s character and fitness section, and eventually, I was able to do that. It was very emotional to go through the process. I’m very much one of the lucky ones where the record did not impact me actually, but it did impact me emotionally.”

She later sought to have her record expunged in solidarity with the clients she helped navigate the process. CGLA serves 6,000 to 8,000 people annually, most seeking expungement and sealing services.
“As a prosecutor, I had a hand in giving out records to people for many years without understanding the full impact all the way down the line,” Edwards said. “A lot of people don’t understand that these punishments continue beyond what you think you’ve sentenced in the courtroom. They just keep going.”
Expungement and record sealing are available for certain convictions, but the process can be arduous and costly, according to both Edwards and Lightfoot. Expungement erases arrests and court supervision, while sealing hides a record from the public view except for law enforcement agencies.
“We believe a clean slate should be offered to all when we say we believe in second chances. We believe in multiple chances, in individuals’ ability to be redeemed, and in their ability to move on from their past. We believe that all individuals should have the right to do so,” Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain said; she’s the executive director at LIVE FREE Illinois, a faith-based organization.
LIVE FREE is also part of the Clean Slate Coalition. Through the Clean Slate Act, the coalition is advocating for automating the expungement and record-sealing process, removing convictions from records after three to five years.
“The system isn’t built for people to get their records sealed. It’s too complicated, and the people who need it most often lack the money and time,” Lightfoot said. “It’s a setup for failure. So we say, let’s automate it. Let’s create a system where people are forgiven.”
He added that automation would also streamline the judicial process.
While the proposed legislation establishes an automatic process for sealing certain records, it excludes serious criminal offenses ineligible for sealing or expungement under current state law.
At least a dozen states, led by both Democratic and Republican leaders, have passed clean slate legislation.
“There’s always an appetite from the community to pass this type of legislation because we can pass legislation that will alleviate strain and pressure from communities,” Bates-Chamberlain said. “There’s over four million people who are impacted by an arrest or conviction in Illinois. We have to ensure that the appetite of the General Assembly is reflective of the community.”
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