Over 100,000 Criminal Records Sealed Under Colorado’s “Clean Slate Act”
Colorado lawmakers have amended the state’s “Clean Slate Act” to include arrests without charges and completed diversions. Effective July 1, 2025, arrest records will automatically be sealed when no charges are filed within one year. The provision is retroactive to January 2022.
Passed as Senate Bill 22-099 in 2022, the law initially took effect on July 1, 2024. It made Colorado the seventh state to adopt clean slate legislation since 2018, following Pennsylvania, Utah, Michigan, Connecticut, Delaware and Oklahoma. The goal is to help those with convictions secure employment and housing opportunities, since three out of every ten state residents have an arrest or conviction record. Supporters called it a way to ease worker shortages that followed the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the law, misdemeanors are automatically sealed after seven years while certain felonies can be sealed after 10 years. The records then no longer appear on background checks, removing a significant barrier to employment, education and housing.
The state Judicial Department’s first scan of data revealed that over 140,000 cases were eligible for sealing. While the state maintains access to these records, they will no longer be visible after sealing to landlords, businesses and schools.
The State Court Administrator’s Office identifies eligible cases and distributes them to the state’s 22 district attorneys, who can object to specific cases under certain conditions—such as when the person has subsequent convictions, or the case is deemed ineligible for sealing because it involved a crime like DUI or child abuse. There is also a catch-all category of exemptions from sealing for “public interest.” But by early May 2024, prosecutors had objected only to 4.5% of eligible cases—4,889 out of 109,098. Felony cases accounted for only 2% of eligible convictions but 10% of objections, while misdemeanors and petty offenses were less frequently contested.
The rate of objections varies widely by jurisdiction, however. In southeastern Colorado’s 16th Judicial District, it reached 31%. In other jurisdictions, objections were raised to fewer than 1% of eligible cases. The unevenness has raised concerns about racial biases, with Black defendants accounting for 7% of objections despite making up only 4% of eligible cases. Hispanic defendants are similarly overrepresented in objections.
Nonprofits advocating for the Clean Slate Act, including Expunge Colorado and Healthier Colorado, are taking a close look at prosecutors’ objections to ensure that they are made within legal bounds. They emphasize the need for transparency and equity to fulfill the law’s intent to reduce the long-term impacts of criminal records on marginalized communities.
Sources: Colorado Sun, Forbes, Governing
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login