The Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC) recently released new reports on criminal record expungement policies and marijuana legalization and expungement policies across the country. State officials report that over 60,000 records have been automatically expunged in Utah since the beginning of 2022, and in Missouri, over 5,000 marijuana convictions have been automatically expunged since legalizing recreational marijuana just this past December.
This is welcome news—for these individuals and the U.S. labor market more broadly.
As we discuss in our chapter on Criminal Justice in Empowering the New American Worker, an estimated 30-plus percent of U.S. adults have a criminal record of some kind, and more than 8 percent—almost 20 million Americans—had a felony record in 2010 (see Figure 1). Often, these records constitute significant barriers to stable employment, thus contributing to increased recidivism and reducing incomes and economic mobility. In fact, a study published last year reported that 64 percent of unemployed men in their 30s had previously been arrested, and nearly half (46 percent) had been convicted of a crime. And these employment barriers exist for not only those convicted of crimes, but even individuals who were acquitted or had the charges against them dropped.
Fortunately, states are beginning to enact reforms to improve employment outcomes for individuals with criminal records:
- Since 2018, 21 states—often with large bipartisan majorities—have enacted some form of automatic expungement, which seals an individual’s criminal record from public view and allows him to say he doesn’t have a criminal record. As the name suggests, this process occurs automatically—immediately upon non-conviction or after several years of avoiding another conviction. Research shows that expungement leads to more employment opportunities and higher wages for recipients, and that recipients are very unlikely to reoffend. Many states allow expungement of various records, but oftentimes individuals must apply for expungement, and application rates are quite low. In Michigan, prior to automatic expungement, just 8.8 percent of eligible recipients applied for expungement, even though expungements were granted 75 percent of the time. That translates to tens of thousands of workers carrying the burden of a criminal record for merely procedural reasons. Automatic expungement—for non-convictions, misdemeanors, non-violent offenses, and “crimes” that have since been legalized (e.g., marijuana possession)—would solve this problem, boosting labor force participation with little risk to public safety. A bipartisan group in Congress has pushed for legislation doing the same for certain federal crimes.
- Both red and blue states have also recently pursued occupational licensing reforms to no longer discriminate against certain individuals with a criminal record, but much more work remains. Currently, 30 states grant licensing boards the right to deny those acquitted of a crime from receiving a license, and 13 states allow the denial of a license without considering subsequent rehabilitation or later conduct (see Figure 2). These restrictions are usually related to offenses connected to the occupation or industry in question, but five states grant boards the right to deny a license application due to any felony conviction, even if it occurred decades ago and is unrelated to the occupation being pursued. As discussed elsewhere in Empowering, many occupational licenses should be eliminated. For those that remain, however, states should prohibit licensing boards from considering all non-convictions, all convictions for since‐legalized activities, and, after a period of “good behavior,” criminal records unrelated to the license in question.
- Finally, since 2017 almost two dozen states have reformed laws that denied drivers licenses to individuals with unpaid fines or missed court dates. That same year, more than 11 million Americans had suspended licenses for such reasons, and one New Jersey study found that 91 percent of all license suspensions in the state were for non-driving infractions. As many occupations require a driver’s license and many workers need transportation to and from work, license suspensions increase unemployment or force workers to risk driving without a license. States should repeal these laws immediately.
With state legislatures back in session across the country, improving employment opportunities for individuals with criminal records should be a priority for any lawmaker concerned about labor force participation or crime. Fortunately, their colleagues in other states have shown where to start.
