In Illinois, more than 3.3 million people live with an arrest or a conviction on their record. A legal justice record of any kind can prevent an individual from accessing housing, employment and services—barriers collectively termed the “second chance gap.”
The consequences are lost opportunities and $4.7 billion in lost earnings across the state, according to a recent estimate.
The Clean Slate Act—an Illinois law signed by Gov. Pritzker in January—seeks to eliminate barriers by automating “records relief,” the process of sealing and expungement of legal justice records.
For Fiscal Year 2027, $5.6 million has been allocated to the Clean Slate Act for expungement and record sealing. The law is expected to provide relief to an estimated 2.2 million people across the state.
The Clean Slate Illinois Coalition, led by a steering committee comprising Live Free Illinois, the Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments, and the Working Center for Racial Justice, advocated for and introduced the legislation that made Illinois the 13th clean slate state.
Live Free and coalition leadership
Live Free—an interfaith nonprofit that specializes in social justice organizing and activism—has been at the helm of the Clean Slate movement.
Live Free organizes more than 130 congregations around advocacy causes ranging from gun violence to police violence as well as decarceration and healing justice.
Artinese Thomas, deputy director of Live Free Illinois, said faith-based institutions are uniquely positioned to reach communities most impacted by the justice system.
“We believe that where Black people are, they’re affected by all those issues,” Thomas said, who oversees organizing and policy for Live Free.
“These are the most organized spaces in Black communities—and it’s also Black led from the top to the bottom,” Thomas said. “And these are also the spaces where the people on the frontlines and the people in the gaps who oftentimes are creating the solutions and responding to the needs that need to happen in these individual blocks.”
During COVID-19, ministries activated to coordinate vaccines and mask distribution, Thomas told TCR. Now, Live Free is leading the fight for policy reform.
Faith, ministry, and organizing strategy
In order to effect real change, civic participation must remain the baseline priority for congregants, Rev. Steven Thurston—Live Free board member and pastor at the historic New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church told TCR.
“Our voice—our vote—is one of our most powerful weapons.”
Rev. Thurston emphasized the importance of sustained political engagement across every level of government.
“One of our main focuses in this justice fight—making sure that our voice is heard and well represented on state level, city level, county level, national level—every level where our voice can be heard, we’ve got to make it count.”
“If the policy doesn’t change, nothing changes—we can march, protest, boycott—those are effective tools. But if the policy doesn’t change, all of that’s for naught.”
Rev. Thurston also engaged church leaders and pastors from other congregations to spread awareness about the second chance gap.
“Many pastors have congregants who are incarcerated, former congregants who are now incarcerated and congregants with family members who are impacted by the justice system,” Rev. Thurston told TCR. By educating peers in ministry on the second chance gap, he said the church was able to drum up support for the Clean Slate Act.
“We really zeroed in and galvanized pastors to lose their ‘prophetic laryngitis’ and use their voices,” Rev. Thurston said.