Michigan's Clean Slate Law Just Turned Five — Here's What It Did

Michigan's Clean Slate package — seven laws passed in 2020 — turned five this April, and the numbers from a new Safe & Just Michigan report are striking. Automatic expungement, which launched in 2023, has now cleared nearly 1.5 million convictions, touching more than 950,000 people. Roughly 293,000 Michiganders now have completely clean records as a result.

Beyond the raw numbers, the report describes what that clearing actually does for people — access to jobs, housing, and licensing that a record used to block outright. One woman who learned her record had been automatically cleared at an expungement fair described the moment simply: it felt, she said, like being reborn.

The report doesn't stop at celebration. It also identifies two specific legislative fixes that could extend automatic relief to more people who are currently still stuck in the older, petition-based system — a reminder that even a strong five-year track record still has real gaps left to close.

Source: Safe & Just Michigan, "Clean Slate Turns 5: Clean Slate 2.0 and What Comes Next," April 2026.