Why Should Delaware Care?
In 2024, Delaware enacted a law to expunge low-level criminal records, removing a barrier that can keep people from accessing jobs, housing, and education. The law was expected to clear records for close to 300,000 adults, but disagreements among state officials over which records qualify delayed the process. Now some are unsure whether their record has been cleared.
Months after Delaware officials resolved a dispute over how to implement their new Clean Slate law, the state has expunged nearly 280,000 low-level criminal cases from people’s records.
While the number is sizable, it falls short of Gov. Matt Meyer’s goal, announced in June, of clearing the state’s entire backlog of Clean Slate cases by August.
According to officials with the Delaware Criminal Justice Information System, over 350,000 potentially expungable adult and juvenile cases remain. Those officials could not provide an estimate for the numbers of individuals impacted, noting that one person can have more than one case.
Passed in 2021 and implemented in 2024, the Delaware Clean Slate Act was designed to expunge low-level criminal cases, such as shoplifting or possession of drug paraphernalia, from people’s records.
Delaware was the fifth state then to adopt a Clean Slate law. Today there are a total of 14 states and Washington D.C. with similar legislation.
Employers, landlords and educational institutions often use background checks to screen applicants, which can prevent people with minor charges, such as shoplifting or possession of drug paraphernalia, from accessing housing, jobs and education.
While many in Delaware now have that obstacle removed, Spotlight Delaware has learned that the state will not notify individuals impacted by the changes, leading to confusion for some.
Among those is Rebecka Ash, a Kent County resident who is completing a master’s degree in social work while also applying for jobs she needs to obtain a professional license. She says she is uncertain whether potential employers will find out about her past.
Ash began her education after a period in which she spent in prison on drug charges. And she has noted that her record had show up earlier this year on background checks, costing her internships and scholarships.
“There’s a disconnect, and nobody really knows who to ask or what to do,” Ash said, referring to questions around notification.
An official with Gov. Matt Meyer’s office told Spotlight Delaware that the state does not plan to notify individuals when their records have been expunged, citing “practical concerns” that a notice sent to the wrong person or disclosed to others could compromise their privacy.
“It could undermine the privacy relief that expungement is intended to provide,” the official said.
Clean Slate still faces delays
The state’s recent expungement progress comes after months of pressure from criminal justice advocates, who urged the administration to address delays in the record-clearing process.
Part of the delay stemmed from a disagreement between state officials over the number of cases that should be cleared.
After the law passed, officials from the Delaware Criminal Justice Information System identified more than 290,000 adults with nearly 600,000 cases eligible for expungement.
But officials from the State Bureau of Identification, under the Delaware State Police, said the estimated caseload was inaccurate.
Jamie Mangrum, a spokeswoman for Meyer’s office, said the officials have since made progress on resolving the dispute and “the process is now moving at a very strong pace.”
Despite the progress, John Reynolds, an official with the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, said the rollout is moving too slowly. He noted that state officials had three years to implement the program, between the time it passed to its launch in 2024.
“Most other states have done it in a year or two years,” said Reynolds, the ACLU’s deputy policy and advocacy director.
Meryum Dede, an attorney and executive director of Tide Shift Project, a local criminal justice reform advocacy organization, said the delay may push people to pay the costly fees associated with manually applying for an expungement.
The Tide Shift Project has previously contrasted Delaware’s lack of progress to Pennsylvania, which expunged over 34 million cases during the first year of implementation of its similar Clean Slate Act.
How do people know their records are cleared?
Even as the state works through its backlog, the challenge remains of notifying people when their records have been cleared.
Without a notification system, people must find other ways to determine whether their records have been cleared. Although many states with automatic expungement laws lack a streamlined portal for checking expungement status, some offer easier access to court records, Dede said.
She pointed to Pennsylvania and Maryland, which offer searchable court systems that allow individuals to look up their cases and see whether records remain publicly accessible.
In Delaware’s case, the standard method for requesting a copy of one’s criminal history is done through a process that costs $72.
Another option is to attend a state expungement fair. These events are hosted by the Delaware Office of Defense Services. Although the events are not designed to help people verify their records, staff and attorneys can offer advice on expungements and pardons,
Dede also noted people with recent cases could also contact their former attorneys, who may still have access to their records in order to check whether they have been expunged.
As a last resort, individuals can visit their local courthouse to check whether their records remain publicly accessible through the Judicial Information Center, an electronic court docket.
Although the state’s court system has made strides in digitizing its civil caseload in recent years, its criminal case search remains antiquated beyond modern standards.
The system — which resembles the MS-DOS operating system of the 1980s rather than a modern Google-style search field — can be difficult to navigate, requiring specific case or identification numbers.
She added there is no public service to help people use it and that accessing or printing records at the courthouse may also come with additional costs.
