Study Details | Pathways to Work

28076-Study of Clean Slate

Study quality: Low

Low

Reason for the rating: This study received a low study quality rating because it is a quasi-experimental design that does not demonstrate that the intervention and comparison groups were sufficiently similar before the intervention.

Intervention: Clean Slate Clinic

Population and employment barriers:

Specific employment barriers (Justice system involvement)

Services provided:

Legal assistance

Setting: Urban only

Study design

Design:

Quasi-experimental design

Study group formation:

This intervention was analyzed using a difference-in-difference analysis. Participants were eligible to be included in the analysis if they were represented by the East Bay Community Law Center. People who received consultations or referrals, but were not ultimately represented by the center, were excluded from the study. Eligible participants in the study received services from the Clean Slate Clinic between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2009. Study participants consisted of 264 individuals, drawn randomly from the pool of individuals who received services during this time. Evaluators obtained anonymized administrative data on employment outcomes from 2000-2011 for eligible participants from the Social Security Administration. Of the 264 participants who were selected to be in the study, it was not possible to obtain outcome data for 29 participants. The 235 participants with outcome data were grouped into four cohorts based on the timing of service receipt. At each point in time, the intervention group consisted of participants who had already received Clean Slate services, whereas the comparison group consisted of participants who had not yet received services.

Time period of study:

Study participants received services between 2007 and 2009. The study measured outcomes for study participants through 2011.

Pathways only reports results from studies with a study quality rating of high or moderate.

Sample characteristics

Age

Mean age

41 years

Sex

Female	37%
Male	63%

Participant employment and public benefit status

Were employed	75%
Were unemployed	25%

Specific employment barriers

Were involved with the justice system

100%

Intervention implementation

Implementing organization:

East Bay Community Law Center

Intervention services:

The Clean Slate Clinic provided legal assistance to clients with criminal records. The intervention involved a lawyer obtaining the client's records of arrests and prosecutions (known as a rap sheet), reviewing the sheet to identify items that might be eligible to be cleared from the client's criminal history, and then completing a petition on behalf of the client for all eligible items. Items eligible to be cleared included arrests, misdemeanor convictions, and some felony convictions. If a petition was successful, a client was not required to disclose these items as part of their criminal history on job applications.

Mandatory services:

None

Comparison services:

People in the comparison condition were clients who had not yet received services from the Clean Slate Clinic at the time outcomes were measured. These people received intervention services later.

Study publications

Selbin, Jeffrey, Justin McCrary, and Joshua Epstein (2018). Unmarked? Criminal record clearing and employment outcomes, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 108(1): 1-72.

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Study of Clean Slate Clinic