Chambana Sun

On the last day of the fall veto session, Illinois lawmakers passed the Clean Slate Act, a sweeping reform that automatically seals certain criminal records for individuals convicted of crimes deemed “not serious." 

Passed on Oct. 30, House Bill 1836 now awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker's signature. 

If signed, the measure would automate the sealing of criminal records potentially impacting up to 2.2 million Illinoisans every six months, according to Capitol News Illinois.  

The Illinois Clean Slate Act introduces several major provisions aimed at automatically sealing criminal records for eligible individuals, including certain dismissals, reversals, arrests, Class C misdemeanors, and nonviolent felonies, which will be sealed every six months without requiring the former offender to file a petition to do so. 

Serious offenses such as sex crimes against minors and DUIs are excluded from the measure. 

Critics like State Rep. Chapin Rose (R–Mahomet) say the bill is reflective of Democrat's “soft-on-crime” polices that erode accountability, undermines law enforcement morale, and puts public safety at risk.

"More pro-criminal nonsense from the Democratic Party of Illinois,” Rose told the Chambana Sun. “Under J.B. Pritzker's watch, we handcuffed the police and let the bad guys go. But there's a provision that you build. I think people need to understand you're already able to seal records in certain cases.” 

Supporters of the bill argue it allows former offenders to move forward without the burden of having a criminal past.  

Rose said he's open to second-chance reform— noting he’d “be the first one when someone turns their life around, truly turns their life around, to help them in that process” — but described the bill’s approach as “mollycoddling” that invites chaos.

“When you're just going to play patty cake with habitual criminals, what's the impact?” he said. “The impact is, it's a leftist society. What's the impact? It's more crime. More victims, more crime, more cost to society as a whole. It's, I think, insane where we're at. But apparently, Governor Pritzker and the Democrats think we need more crime."

Sponsored by Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago), the bill maintains exclusions for grave offenses like murder, sex crimes, Class X felonies, violent crimes, DUIs, domestic battery and human trafficking. 

Non-conviction records would also be automatically sealed, with access preserved for law enforcement, courts and select agencies.  

The legislation establishes the Illinois Clean Slate Task Force for oversight and includes implementation delays: six extra months for the Illinois State Police and a full year for court clerks.

Another provision in the reform eliminates the requirement for individuals to submit a negative drug test when seeking to seal certain drug convictions.

Under previous Illinois law, offenders had to prove they were drug-free within 30 days of filing for record sealing—a safeguard supporters said demonstrated rehabilitation. 

Lawmakers in support of the new measure argued the previous rule unfairly penalized low-income petitioners and created unnecessary barriers for people who had already completed their sentences. 

If the bill is signed into law, those drug offenses will be sealed automatically—eliminating the drug test and petition steps. 

Rose warned that stripping such verification undermines rehabilitation incentives and burdens society with repeat offenses. 

“One of the things we put in there for drug offenses was that you had to provide a negative drug test as part of your application,” he said. “The reason, and it should be just sort of common sense, is that if we're going to seal your record from whatever you did when you were 18, as a young kid with drugs, you shouldn't, at 30 years old or 40 years old, still be doing drugs, right? So providing a negative drug test was a fairly common-sense evidence-sharing method to support the position of this person."

Echoing Rose's concerns, other Republicans decried the bill's passage in the Senate and House despite bipartisan support in the lower chamber. 

Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield) argued it eliminates statutory protections for rehabilitation, potentially exposing communities to unreformed individuals. 

“One of the major themes in anyone who is rehabilitated from the criminal justice system is that they have taken personal responsibility to get their life on track,” McClure said, according to Capitol News Illinois. “This takes those things away. So, it makes us less safe.”

Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) highlighted the lost drug test mandate, calling it essential for proving stability.

“We are also removing, this bill would remove the provision requiring a petitioner to attach a negative drug test to a petition for sealing,” Windhorst said, according to the Center Square.

Rose is in agreement with Windhorst’s take on the issue. 

“The whole point of the negative test was to prove that this individual has really turned their life around and deserving of a second chance," Rose said. 

Rose tied the changes to a demoralizing "revolving door" effect plaguing police, who he said are increasingly reluctant to make arrests knowing consequences are fleeting. 

“I think that’s actually the frustration of a lot of police officers,” he said. “And part of the reason why you’re seeing arrests drop is because police know that it’s not worth the time, effort, and headache to go through the paperwork of actually arresting somebody just to walk them, watch out the door and watch them walk out the courthouse and the revolving door the next day with essentially no consequences.”

Broader opposition has dogged Clean Slate efforts, with earlier versions stalling in June 2025 over fears of public safety risks, implementation costs and impacts on victims who might lose quick access to offender histories. 

Victim advocates contend automatic sealing could shatter trust in the justice system, leaving crime survivors vulnerable.

Complicating matters is ongoing scrutiny of Sims, the bill's sponsor, who has been under FBI investigation since September 2022 for alleged influence peddling. 

The probe stems from a 2021 bill he sponsored mandating police body cameras by 2025, which benefited Axon Enterprise, the company he represented as an attorney, without disclosed conflicts. An ethics complaint against him dates to April 2020 from the Chicago Board of Ethics, and Illinois Republicans have flagged it as a symbol of Springfield's ethical shortcomings.

Rose highlighted the partisan divide, pointing to what he described as growing permissiveness by Democrats amid rising crime.

"I would also assert that that's been ongoing for a while now, right?” he said. “But I guess my overall view is I'm more focused on the overall notion that we're somehow being soft on crime, which is a cliché. We're not. I'm not. But the Democrats are being soft on crime, which is a cliché. But it's really true. I mean, it's just overall, it doesn't matter what segment it is, whether it's a business setting or someone's home that's getting broken into, there's going to be more crime."