212.627.8100On November 16, 2024, the New York Clean Slate Act will take effect, which may eventually seal the criminal conviction records of over two million New Yorkers. However, it may take up to three additional years for New York to design the automatic sealing process. In part, the Act intends to ensure that those with criminal convictions have a fairer opportunity to obtain a job. To achieve this goal, the Act limits access to the information a potential employer may find on their employees or applicants.
The Act sets forth various requirements for sealing convictions. Misdemeanors, for example, may only be sealed if three years have passed since you were released from incarceration, or since the sentencing date, if you were not sentenced to incarceration. During these three years, you must not have received any additional convictions or have a New York criminal charge pending. If you do, you must wait another three years from the date of release or alternative sentencing date for the newest conviction.
To seal a felony conviction, eight years without additional convictions must have passed since your release from incarceration, or the sentencing date, if you were not sentenced to incarceration. If there are any new convictions in those eight years, you must wait eight years from the date of the release from incarceration or alternative sentencing date for the newest conviction.
A pending New York criminal charge will reset the clock for sealing. Detainment for an alleged parole or post-release supervision violation will not reset the clock unless it results in reincarceration.
Generally, a conviction will not be sealed while you are on probation or parole for that same conviction. Convictions for sexual offenses, sexually violent offenses, and most non-drug Class A felonies such as manslaughter or murder will not be eligible to be sealed.
Convictions that are sealed are removed from public court indexes, and therefore generally not available to most employers for their review. Employers will generally not be allowed to inquire further into the conviction(s) unless a statute otherwise permits them to do so. If an employer chooses to run a criminal background check on you, the sealed convictions will not be visible to them. But because the state of New York has three years to implement this law, some records will not be sealed immediately. This means that if you are applying to jobs, some convictions that are eligible to be sealed may still appear for some time until New York has fully determined and enacted the process for sealing these records.
Although these sealings are supposed to happen automatically and do not require an application, it would be a good idea to obtain a copy of your official criminal records through the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). DCJS has the only log of an individual’s official criminal history record. This would allow you to review which convictions may be eligible for sealing. Individuals will have to submit their fingerprints to get their records but may be able to get a fee waiver through DCJS. Please note that for individuals with an immigration-related order of removal in their past, submitting fingerprints could lead the state to report to immigration enforcement.