Standards, policies and model laws

Criminal and juvenile records

Model Law on Non-Conviction Records (2019)

Model legislation with reporters from the Collateral Consequences Resource Center and an advisory group of lawyers, judicial officials, lawmakers, academics, policy experts, and advocates.

ABA Model Act Governing the Confidentiality and Expungement of Juvenile Delinquency Records (2015)

Model legislation from the American Bar Association

Collateral consequences

Model Penal Code: Sentencing, §§ 6.03, 6.04 (“Deferred Prosecution” and “Deferred Adjudication”) Article 7 (“Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction”) (2017)

Model legislation from the American Law Institute

Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act (2010)

Model legislation from the Uniform Law Commission

ABA Standards for Criminal Justice: Collateral Sanctions and Discretionary Disqualification of Convicted Persons (2004)

Standards for attorneys and the judiciary published by the American Bar Association

Employment and occupational licensing

Model Collateral Consequences in Occupational Licensing Act (2018)

Model legislation from the Institute for Justice

Model State Law (Removing Barriers to State Occupational Licenses for People with Records) (2016)

Model Legislation from the National Employment Law Project

Best Practices and Model Fair-Chance Policies (including “ban the box”) (2015)

Model Legislation from the National Employment Law Project

Beyond the Box: Increasing Access to Higher Education for Justice-Involved Individuals (2016)

2016 report and guidance from the U.S. Department of Education

What Employment Background Screening Companies Need to Know About the Fair Credit Reporting Act (2016)

2016 guidance from the Federal Trade Commission

EEOC Enforcement Guidance (2012)

Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Housing

Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transactions (2016)

2016 guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Related blog posts:

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DC’s non-conviction sealing law is uniquely complex and restrictive (3/30/2021) - Last year, 20 states enacted reforms expanding access to expungement, record-sealing, and other forms of record relief. Many legislatures, including the District of Columbia City Council, are considering reform proposals this session. Given the progressive steps taken by the District in the past year to expand opportunities for people with a criminal record to vote and obtain occupational licensing, we [...]
Study measures gap between availability and delivery of “second chance” relief (3/19/2021) - Professor Colleen V. Chien of Santa Clara University has published a major empirical study in the Michigan Law Review that examines the gap between eligibility for and actual delivery of relief from contact with the criminal justice system, a construct she calls the “second chance gap.” (The term is defined with examples here.) Last week, Chien led a team of [...]
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Virginia poised to enact “transformative” record clearance law (3/8/2021) - Editor’s Note: We are delighted to post a description of the broad new record relief bill now awaiting Governor Northam’s signature, by an attorney-advocate who was actively involved in the campaign to secure its passage. Rob Poggenklass describes the ambitious new law and how it came to be enacted, as well as likely next steps for record clearance in a [...]
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Momentum grows to restore voting rights to people with a felony (2/3/2021) - Our new report on 2020 legislative reforms shows continued progress in state efforts to expand voting rights for people with a felony conviction. Despite a courtroom setback at the Eleventh Circuit, where a federal appeals court ruled that Florida’s landmark 2018 felony re-enfranchisement initiative does not restore the vote to people who owe court debt, two additional states and D.C. [...]
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Are Trump’s Pardons a Blessing in Disguise? (12/30/2020) - The title of this post is the title of my piece in Lawfare arguing that, in response to President Trump’s reckless pardoning, Congress should reroute many of pardon’s routine functions into the federal courts. The piece is reprinted below: Are Trump’s Pardons a Blessing in Disguise? As President Trump’s irregular and self-serving pardons roll out, incoming President Biden has been urged [...]
Marijuana expungement accelerates across the country (11/20/2020) - In November’s election, four more states legalized marijuana at the ballot box: Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota. The measures in Arizona and Montana included provisions for expunging the record of convictions for certain marijuana arrests or convictions. During this year’s presidential campaign, President-elect Joseph R. Biden called for decriminalizing marijuana use and automatically expunging all marijuana use convictions. [...]
Federal Certificate Offers New Hope for Americans in ‘Internal Exile’ (10/28/2020) - The title of this post is the title of our op-ed in The Crime Report in support of a bipartisan Senate bill that would authorize judges to issue a “Certificate of Rehabilitation” to qualified individuals with federal convictions. The bill in question was included in the Business Roundtable’s “Second Chance Agenda,” which was the subject of a post here two [...]
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The Reintegration Report Card (10/6/2020) - We are pleased to publish “The Reintegration Report Card,” a new resource that ranks and grades all 50 states on how their laws address voting rights, record relief (including expungement and pardon), fair employment, and occupational licensing for people with a criminal record. This Report Card supplements our recent 50-state report, “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” That report surveys U.S. [...]
“The Many Roads to Reintegration”: A 50-state report on laws restoring rights and opportunities (9/8/2020) - We are pleased to release a new report describing the present landscape of laws in the United States aimed at restoring rights and opportunities after an arrest or conviction. This report, titled The Many Roads to Reintegration, is an update and refresh of our previous national survey, last revised in 2018. The report covers voting and firearms rights, an array [...]
Expungement, sealing & set-aside of convictions: A national survey (9/1/2020) - *Update (9/8/20): the full national report, “The Many Roads to Reintegration,” is now available. Last month we announced the forthcoming publication of a national report surveying mechanisms for restoring rights and opportunities following arrest or conviction, titled “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” So far, we have previewed the report in draft chapters covering “loss and restoration of voting and firearms [...]
Judicial certificates of relief: A national survey (8/26/2020) - *Update (9/8/20): the full national report, “The Many Roads to Reintegration,” is now available. Last month we announced the forthcoming publication of a national report surveying mechanisms for restoring rights and opportunities following arrest or conviction, titled “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” So far, we have previewed the report in draft chapters covering “loss and restoration of voting and firearms [...]
Non-conviction records: A national survey (8/24/2020) - *Update (9/8/20): the full national report, “The Many Roads to Reintegration,” is now available. In July, we announced the forthcoming publication of a national report surveying mechanisms for restoring rights and opportunities following arrest or conviction, titled “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” So far, we have previewed the report by publishing draft chapters covering “loss and restoration of voting and [...]
Deferred adjudication: A national survey (8/20/2020) - *Update (9/8/20): the full national report, “The Many Roads to Reintegration,” is now available. In July, we announced the forthcoming publication of a national report surveying mechanisms for restoring rights and opportunities following arrest or conviction, titled “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” So far, we have previewed the report by publishing draft chapters covering “loss and restoration of voting and [...]
Pardon policy & practice: A national survey (8/19/2020) - *Update (9/8/20): the full national report, “The Many Roads to Reintegration,” is now available. In July, we announced the forthcoming publication of a national report surveying mechanisms for restoring rights and opportunities following arrest or conviction, titled “The Many Roads to Reintegration.” So far, we have previewed the report by publishing draft sections covering “loss and restoration of voting and [...]
The Purgatory of Digital Punishment (8/17/2020) - It doesn’t matter whether they’re accurate—criminal records are all over the internet, where anyone can find them. And everyone does. By SARAH ESTHER LAGESON On a frozen December day in Minneapolis, William walked into a free legal aid seminar, to try to fix his criminal record. Lumbering toward a lawyer, his arms full of paperwork, William tried to explain his situation [...]