LANSING, Mich. — More than 1.2 million convictions were set aside Tuesday on the first day of an automatic expungement program created by a 2020 law designed to reopen job and housing opportunities for individuals with old crimes on their records.
Michigan State Police said its software cleared 1,077,788 misdemeanor and 105,078 felony convictions from its Criminal History Record. That's in addition to the thousands of lesser, 92-day misdemeanor convictions that district courts are sorting through separately for expungement.
In all, in the Michigan State Police's expungement efforts Tuesday, 252,417 people are now conviction-free and 842,593 individuals had at least one conviction set aside, state police spokeswoman Shanon Banner said.
The number of individuals impacted by the measure comes to about 10% of the state's population and the number of convictions cleared represents about 35% of the criminal records in Michigan, said John Cooper, executive director for Safe and Just Michigan.
"These are staggering historic numbers and they should be celebrated," Cooper said at a Tuesday event observing the start of the automatic expungement process.
State Rep. Graham Filler, the St. Johns Republican who chaired House Judiciary Committee when the expungement laws were written, said the vision was always to help individuals realize job, education and housing opportunities while maintaining public safety. He said he looks forward to working with stakeholders "to ensure the process is issue-free."
"I believe deeply in expungement and am thrilled that we worked through the bureaucracy to turn it into a reality," Filler said.
State Rep. Graham Filler, R-St. Johns, said the expungement laws setting aside old criminal convictions is meant to help Michigan residents get access to jobs and housing opportunities.
Former state Rep. David LaGrand, a Grand Rapids Democrat who helped shepherd the bills through the Legislature, noted the bills passed with near bipartisan consensus through both chambers and will help countless people to get access to housing and employment where they were previously barred.
"This is what justice looks like," he said.
Michigan lawmakers in 2020 passed the so-called "Clean Slate" package, expanding the crimes eligible for expungement and streamlining the expungement process.
Since April 2021, people have been able to apply for expungement of certain crimes under the law. But a key portion of the legislation — a process to automatically expunge certain misdemeanors and felonies — was delayed two years so the state would have time to prepare police, courts and software programs for the change.
Michigan is among 10 states to have adopted automatic expungement and will be the third behind Pennsylvania and Utah to implement the process.
Advocates have argued the automatic nature was needed to ensure equal access to the system for individuals who can't afford lawyers or can't manage the paperwork process for a minor conviction.
"There’s not going to be a wealth test for automatic expungement," LaGrand said Tuesday. "You don’t need to go hire somebody. You don’t need to stay away because you’re ashamed of your past.
"Automatic cuts through shame. It cuts through money. It cuts through sophistication.”
The automatic expungement law sets aside certain misdemeanors after a seven-year, post-sentencing waiting period and certain non-assaultive felony convictions after a 10-year, post-sentence completion waiting period.
Any misdemeanors or felonies considered assaultive crimes, serious misdemeanors, crimes of dishonesty, human trafficking, drunken driving, certain abuse offenses or crimes punishable by more than 10 years are not eligible for an automatic set-aside under the law. Individuals with pending criminal charges or individuals who were convicted of another crime during their waiting period that appears in the state criminal history record also are not eligible.
There are no limits to how many eligible misdemeanors with a penalty of less than 92 days in jail can be automatically expunged. But misdemeanors punishable by more than 93 days in jail are limited to four per person and eligible felonies are limited to no more than two per person.
The expungement or "set-aside" will erase the offenses from an individual's criminal history and make court and police records involving the set-aside conviction private. Police will retain nonpublic records of past convictions for reference in the event that a person re-offends.
Once the automatic expungements are fully processed, Individuals who want to check to see if their records have been expunged can search their name in Michigan State Police iCHAT database for $10 or by checking in with the courthouse where their case was handled.
A court could reinstate a conviction if an automatic expungement was granted erroneously or the court found the person failed to make a good-faith effort to pay restitution.
