Clean Slate Club

Wiping away felons’ records might mean big bucks for states.

- Samantha Michaels

MARCELLA WHITE was 15 when her father, a police officer, was shot dead while responding to a break-in. After his death, she moved from Utah to California, where she tangled with the law. None of her offenses were violent, and in total she spent less than a month behind bars. But nearly four decades later, at the age of 69, White has paid an unexpected price for her mistakes. Last year, her applications for senior housing in the San Francisco Bay Area were rejected because of her felony record. When she inspected her rap sheet, she was startled—she couldn’t even remember some of the offenses of her youth. “It was like I was sleepwalking,” she says of her old self. “I wept for the person I used to be.”

Millions of Californians have felony records. But thanks to recent legislation, that may change as hundreds of thousands of them apply to wipe the “scarlet letter F” from their rap sheets. The new laws present “the largest record-change opportunity in US history,” according to Lenore Anderson, the head of the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice. And with about a tenth of the country’s total inmate population, the Golden State could be an important test for whether these criminal justice reforms work and should be replicated elsewhere.

California allows ex-felons to vote but places 4,800 other restrictions on them: They can’t own a gun or serve on a jury, they often run into problems applying for financial aid and subsidized housing, and their record can work against them in divorce or child custody cases. More than half the restrictions deal with employment—former felons are often blocked from jobs at schools, hospitals, and police departments, and they can be denied occupational licenses for just about every profession, even dog walking. About three-quarters of these restrictions last a lifetime.