Project Clean Slate hits 20,000 cleared records in its tenth year

Detroit's Project Clean Slate turned ten this week, and the city marked the date with its 20,000th cleared conviction. The exact running total stands at 20,794 records expunged since the program opened in 2016, according to the City of Detroit.

Project Clean Slate sits inside the Mayor's Office and gives Detroit residents free legal help to seal eligible criminal records. Staff and volunteer attorneys check whether a person qualifies, prepare the paperwork, and handle the court steps, all at no cost to the applicant.

The growth has been front-loaded toward recent years. The city says more than 17,000 of the cleared records have come since 2023, far more than the program managed in its first stretch. Another 4,000 or so convictions are in the pipeline, either ready to file or already moving through the courts.

The acceleration tracks a change in state law. Michigan's 2021 expungement reform widened who could apply and roughly doubled the pool of eligible residents, per the city. A separate provision that automatically clears some old records took effect in April 2023. Project Clean Slate built its caseload on top of those changes.

A cleared record is the thing that unlocks a lot of other things. Job applications, rental applications, professional licenses, and loans all routinely ask about convictions, and a decade-old record can stop an otherwise qualified person at the first screen. Removing it from the public record is the point of the program.

Not every record can be sealed. Federal convictions are outside the program's reach, and Michigan law keeps some categories of serious offenses off the table entirely. Project Clean Slate works the cases that current state law allows.

Mayor Mary Sheffield, who took office in January as Detroit's first woman mayor, framed the milestone around second chances. "I've always been a firm believer that when you make a mistake and pay your debt to society, that mistake should not be held against you forever," she said in the city's announcement.

Residents who want to start can reach the program by phone at (313) 237-3024 or through the registration form on the City of Detroit website. The city also offers free fingerprinting, a common requirement for petitions, at police precincts during the week.