Reports

Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote?
A 50-State Survey (Nov. 2020)

The Reintegration Report Card
Grading the States on Laws Restoring Rights and Opportunities After Arrest or Conviction (Oct. 2020)

The Many Roads to Reintegration
A 50-State Report on Laws Restoring Rights and Opportunities after Arrest or Conviction (Sept. 2020)

Pathways to Reintegration
Criminal Record Reforms in 2019 (Feb. 2020)

Model Law on Non-Conviction Records
(Dec. 2019)

Reducing Barriers to Reintegration
(Dec. 2019)

Second Chance Reforms in 2017
Roundup of new expungement and restoration laws

Forgiving and Forgetting in American Justice (August 2018 revision)
A 50-State Guide to Expungement and Restoration of Rights

Four Years of Second Chance Reforms, 2013 – 2016
Restoration of Rights & Relief from Collateral Consequences

Other reports

Ban the Box: U.S. Cities, Counties, and States Adopt Fair Hiring Policies

Continuously updated report by the National Employment Law Project

Out of Prison & Out of Work: Unemployment among formerly incarcerated people

2018 report by Lucius Couloute & Daniel Kopf, Prison Policy Initiative

Nowhere to Go: Homelessness among formerly incarcerated people

2018 report by Lucius Couloute, Prison Policy Initiative

Getting Back on Course: Educational attainment and exclusion among formerly incarcerated people

2018 report by Lucius Couloute, Prison Policy Initiative

Repairing the Road to Redemption in California

2018 report by Californians for Safety and Justice

Does a Criminal Past Predict Worker Performance? Evidence from One of America’s Largest Employers

2018 report by Jennifer Hickes Lundquist, Devah Pager, Eiko Strader, Social Forces, Volume 96, Issue 3 (March 1, 2018), pp. 1039–68

Nonviolent Drug Convictions: Stakeholders’ Views on Potential Actions to Address Collateral Consequences

2017 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office

Criminal Background Checks and Access to Jobs: A Case Study of Washington, DC

2017 report by the Urban Institute

Criminal Background Checks: Impact on Employment and Recidivism

2017 report by the Urban Institute

Back to Business : How Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Job Seekers Benefits Your Company

2017 report by the American Civil Liberties Union

Ban the Box and Racial Discrimination: A Review of the Evidence and Policy Recommendations

2017 report by the Urban Institute

Fair Chance Licensing Reform: Opening Pathways for People with Records to Join Licensed Professions

2017 report by the National Employment Law Project

Collateral Consequences: Protecting Public Safety or Encouraging Recidivism?

2017 report by the Heritage Foundation

Turning Shackles Into Bootstraps: Why Occupational Licensing Reform Is the Missing Piece of Criminal Justice Reform

2016 report by Stephen Slivinski, Center for the Study of Economic Liberty at Arizona State University

Driver’s license suspensions

2016 report by the Joshua Aiken, Prison Policy Initiative

Helping Moms, Dads, and Kids Come Home: Eliminating Barriers to Housing for People with Criminal Records

2016 report by National H.I.R.E. Network

The Price We Pay: Economic Costs of Barriers to Employment for Former Prisoners and People Convicted of Felonies

2016 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research

Putting Time Limits on the Punitiveness of the Criminal Justice System

2016 policy memo by Anne Morrison Piehl of The Hamilton Project

Disenfranchised by Debt: Millions Impoverished by Prison, Blocked from Voting

2016 report by Alliance for a Just Society

6 Million Lost Voters: State-Level Estimates of Felony Disenfranchisement, 2016

2016 report by the Sentencing Project

Racial Profiling in Hiring: A Critique of New “Ban the Box” Studies

2016 policy brief by the National Employment Law Project

Ensuring Fairness in Background Checks for On-Demand Work

2016 policy brief by the National Employment Law Project

Justice in Review: New Trends in State Sentencing and Corrections 2014 – 2015

2016 report by the Vera Institute of Justice discussing collateral consequence relief mechanisms.

Beyond the Box: Increasing Access to Higher Education for Justice-Involved Individuals

2016 report by the U.S. Department of Education

Unlicensed and Untapped: Removing Barriers to State Occupational Licenses for People with Criminal Records

2016 report by the National Employment Law Project

Future Interrupted: The Collateral Damage Caused by Proliferation of Juvenile Records

2016 report by the Juvenile Law Center

Jobs After Jail: Ending the prison to poverty pipeline

2016 report by the Alliance for a Just Society

Removing Barriers to Opportunity for Parents With Criminal Records and Their Children: A Two Generation Approach

2015 report by the Center for American Progress

Boxed Out: Criminal History Screening and College Application Attrition

2015 report by the Center for Community Alternatives in cooperation with the Education from the Inside Out Coalition

The State of Sentencing 2014: Developments in Policy and Practice

2015 report by The Sentencing Project

Advancing a Federal Fair Chance Hiring Agenda: Background Check Reforms in Over 100 Cities, Counties, & States Pave the Way for Presidential Action

2015 report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP)

National Summit on Collateral Consequences – Conference Report

2015 report by the ABA Criminal Justice Section

Report of House Judiciary Committee hearing on collateral consequences

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Over-Criminalization Task Force (2014)

Collateral Damage: America’s Failure to Forgive or Forget in the War on Crime — A Roadmap to Restore Rights and Status After Arrest or Conviction

2014 report of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

One Strike and You’re Out: How We Can Eliminate Barriers to Economic Security and Mobility for People with Criminal Records

2014 report by Rebecca Vallas and Sharon Dietrich published by the Center for American Progress

Relief in Sight? States Rethink the Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction, 2009 – 2014

2014 report by The Vera Institute of Justice

Failed Policies, Forfeited Futures: A Nationwide Scorecard on Juvenile Records

2014 report on expungement and confidentiality from the Juvenile Law Center

Juvenile Records: A National Review of State Laws on Confidentiality, Sealing, and Expungement

2014 report from the Juvenile Law Center

Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the U.S.

2013 report by Human Rights Watch

65 Million “Need Not Apply”: The Case for Reforming Criminal Background Checks for Employment

2011 report by Michelle Natividad Rodriguez & Maurice Emsellem, National Employment Law Project

The Use of Criminal Records in College Admissions Reconsidered

2010 report of the Center for Community Alternatives

Second Chances in the Criminal Justice System: Alternatives to Incarceration and Reentry Strategies

2008 report by the ABA Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions

NO SECOND CHANCE: People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing

2004 report by Corinne Carey for Human Rights Watch

Related blog posts:

“Positive Credentials That Limit Risk: A Report on Certificates of Relief” (6/27/2024) - We are pleased to present a new report dealing with “certificates of relief,” a form of relief from the collateral consequences of conviction that is less far-reaching than record clearing but potentially available to more people at an earlier point in time. These certificates, offered by a court or correctional agency, do not limit public access to a person’s record [...]
Oklahoma and California win Reintegration Champion awards for 2022 laws (1/17/2023) - On January 10 we posted our annual report on new laws enacted in 2022 to restore rights and opportunities to people with a record of arrest or conviction. Like our earlier reports, it documents the steady progress of what we characterized two years ago as “a full-fledged law reform movement” aimed at restoring rights and dignity to individuals who have [...]
The Frontiers of Dignity: Clean Slate and Other Criminal Record Reforms in 2022 (1/10/2023) - At the beginning of each year since 2017, CCRC has issued a report on legislative enactments in the year just ended, new laws aimed at reducing the barriers faced by people with a criminal record in the workplace, at the ballot box, and in many other areas of daily life. These annual reports document the steady progress of what our [...]
Marijuana legalization and record clearing in 2022 (12/20/2022) - CCRC is pleased to announce a new report on recent cannabis-specific record sealing and expungement reforms in the past 18 months. The report, extending CCRC’s fruitful collaboration with the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at The Ohio State University, is available here. An accompanying infographic (reproduced at the end of this postr) summarizes the report’s findings, and includes a color-coded [...]
“The Many Roads From Reentry to Reintegration” (3/3/2022) - We are pleased to publish the March 2022 revision of our national survey of laws restoring rights and opportunities after arrest or conviction, “The Many Roads from Reentry to Reintegration.“ Like the earlier report, this report contains a series of essays on various relief mechanisms operating in the states, including legislative restoration of voting and firearms rights, various types of [...]
Judicial Diversion and Deferred Adjudication: A National Survey (3/1/2022) - Last week we announced the forthcoming publication of a national report surveying various legal mechanisms for restoring rights and opportunities following arrest or conviction, a revision and updating of our 2020 report “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” The first post in the series (“Expungement, Sealing & Set-Aside of Convictions“), published on February 25, gives some additional background about the report. [...]
Executive Pardon: A National Survey (2/28/2022) - Last week we announced the forthcoming publication of a national report surveying various legal mechanisms for restoring rights and opportunities following arrest or conviction, a revision and updating of our 2020 report “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” The first post in the series (“Expungement, Sealing & Set-Aside of Convictions“), published on February 25, gives some additional background about the report. [...]
Fair Chance Employment and Occupational Licensure: A National Survey (2/25/2022) - Yesterday we announced the forthcoming publication of a national report surveying various legal mechanisms for restoring rights and opportunities following arrest or conviction, a revision and updating of our 2020 report “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” The first post in the series (“Expungement, Sealing & Set-Aside of Convictions“) gives some additional background about the report. This second post in this [...]
Waiting for Relief: A National Survey of Waiting Periods for Record Clearing (2/23/2022) - Our new report is the first-ever comprehensive national survey of the period of time a person, who is otherwise eligible to expunge or seal a misdemeanor or felony conviction record, must wait before obtaining this relief. Waiting periods are usually established by statute and can range from 0 to 20 years. Typically, during a waiting period the person must be [...]
“The High Cost of a Fresh Start” (2/14/2022) - The High Cost of a Fresh Start: New Report Examines Court Debt as a Barrier to Clearing a Conviction Record Download the report: https://ccresourcecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Report-High-Cost-of-Fresh-Start.pdf BOSTON – A new report from the National Consumer Law Center and the Collateral Consequences Resource Center explores the extent to which court debt—such as criminal fines, fees, costs, and restitution—is a barrier to record clearing [...]
CFPB documents the financial burdens imposed on justice-involved individuals (2/2/2022) - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just issued an extraordinary new report on the financial challenges faced by justice-involved individuals in navigating each stage of the criminal justice system. The report, which describes itself as “the first of its kind done by the CFPB,” paints a devastating picture of how the criminal law enforcement system conspires at every step to [...]
Reintegration Champion Awards for 2021 (1/27/2022) - Based on our annual report on 2021 criminal record reforms, the bipartisan commitment to a reintegration agenda keeps getting stronger. A majority of the 151 new laws enacted last year authorize courts to clear criminal records, in some states for the very first time, and several states enacted “clean slate” automatic record clearing. Other new laws restore voting and other [...]
“From Reentry to Reintegration: Criminal Record Reforms in 2021” (1/24/2022) - At the beginning of each year since 2017, CCRC has issued a report on legislation enacted in the past year that is aimed at reducing the barriers faced by people with a criminal record in the workplace, at the ballot box, and in many other areas of daily life. These reports have documented the steady progress of what last year’s [...]
A radical new approach to measuring recidivism risk (1/12/2022) - NOTE: This post has been updated as of 4/2 to incorporate additional research. Researchers at the RAND Corporation have proposed a radical new approach to measuring recidivism risk that raises questions about decades of received truth about the prevalence of reoffending after people leave prison. At least since the 1990s, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has measured risk of recidivism [...]
CCRC’s First Newsletter (9/28/2021) - Dear Subscribers, We write with an update on our continued work to promote public discussion of restoration of rights and opportunities for people with a record. Highlights from this year’s work are summarized below, including roundups of new legislation, case studies on barriers to expungement, policy recommendations, and a new “fair chance lending” project to reduce criminal history barriers to [...]
Reintegration reform returns to pre-pandemic levels in first half of 2021 (7/23/2021) - This year is proving to be a landmark one for legislation restoring rights and opportunities to people with a criminal record, extending the remarkable era of “reintegration reform” that began around 2013. Just in the past six months, 30 states and the District of Columbia have enacted an extraordinary 101 new laws to mitigate collateral consequences. Six more bills await [...]
Study reveals potential for racial bias in presidential pardon process (6/24/2021) - Last week the RAND Corporation published its long-awaited Statistical Analysis of Presidential Pardons, commissioned in 2012 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to determine whether the Justice Department process for deciding who to recommend for a presidential pardon is tainted with “systematic” racial bias. The RAND study appears to have been a direct response to an investigative report published jointly [...]
“Tribal Pardons: A Comparative Study” (5/21/2021) - This is the title of a fascinating new working paper by Andrew Novak, Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University, about a little-studied issue: collateral consequences of tribal convictions and how they are mitigated or avoided. This is an important topic not currently addressed in our national resources on restoration of rights and record relief. Here [...]
How states reduce jury diversity by excluding people with a record (3/12/2021) - Last month, the Prison Policy Initiative released a report called Rigging the Jury, showing how all 50 states reduce jury diversity by excluding some people because of their criminal record, in some cases permanently. The report, which includes a map, table, and detailed appendix explaining each state’s policies, shows that: 44 states bar people with felony convictions from jury service [...]
Online Criminal Records Impose ‘Digital Punishment’ on Millions (2/11/2021) - We are pleased to republish this excellent article by Andrea Cipriano, which describes a new study of online non-conviction records, with permission from The Crime Report. The study concludes that law enforcement records may remain freely available online indefinitely, notwithstanding state laws calling for automatic expungement of such records. (For more information on expungement of non-conviction records, see CCRC’s 50-state [...]