States have begun to pass legislation to provide automatic relief for eligible criminal records, potentially reducing the lifelong collateral consequences of criminal justice involvement. Yet numerous historical examples suggest that racially neutral policies can have profoundly disparate effects across racial groups. In the case of criminal record relief, racial equity in eligibility for a clean slate has not yet been examined. We find that in California, one in five people with convictions met criteria for full conviction relief under the state's automatic relief laws. Yet the share of Black Americans eligible for relief was lower than White Americans, reproducing racial disparities in criminal records. We identify two policy amendments that would reduce the share of Black men in California with convictions on their criminal records from 22% to 9%, thereby narrowing the difference compared to White men from 15 to seven percentage points. Put another way, an additional one in seven Black men currently has a conviction record, compared to their White counterparts. This would decline to an additional one in 14 if both hypothetical policy amendments were incorporated. We close with discussion of criminal history data quality limitations, which pose a second key challenge to equitable implementation of automatic criminal record relief reforms nationwide.

中文翻译：

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根据自动犯罪记录减免法，种族平等有资格获得清白

各州已开始通过立法，为符合条件的犯罪记录提供自动救济，这可能会减少刑事司法参与的终身附带后果。然而，许多历史例子表明，种族中立政策可能对不同种族群体产生截然不同的影响。在犯罪记录减免的情况下，尚未审查是否有资格获得清白的种族平等。我们发现，在加利福尼亚州，五分之一的定罪人符合该州自动救济法规定的完全定罪救济标准。然而，有资格获得救济的美国黑人的比例低于美国白人，再现了犯罪记录中的种族差异。我们确定了两项政策修正案，将加利福尼亚州因犯罪记录定罪的黑人男性比例从 22% 降至 9%，从而将与白人男性的差异从 15 个百分点缩小到 7 个百分点。换句话说，与白人同行相比，目前有七分之一的黑人有定罪记录。如果两个假设的政策修正案都被纳入，这将下降到额外的 14 分之一。最后，我们讨论了犯罪历史数据质量限制，这对在全国范围内公平实施自动犯罪记录救济改革构成了第二个关键挑战。与他们的白人同行相比。如果两个假设的政策修正案都被纳入，这将下降到额外的 14 分之一。最后，我们讨论了犯罪历史数据质量限制，这对在全国范围内公平实施自动犯罪记录救济改革构成了第二个关键挑战。与他们的白人同行相比。如果两个假设的政策修正案都被纳入，这将下降到额外的 14 分之一。最后，我们讨论了犯罪历史数据质量限制，这对在全国范围内公平实施自动犯罪记录救济改革构成了第二个关键挑战。