Colorado Clean Slate Summary

Legislation passed dates: HB 19-1275 on 5/28/19, SB 22-009 on 5/31/22, and HB 24-1133  on 6/4/24.

Effective dates: HB 19-1275 on 08/02/19, SB22-009 on 8/9/22, HB 24-1133 on 7/1/25

Appropriation amount: The 2019 legislation appropriated $490,000. 2022 legislation appropriated $725,000

Terms: Records are sealed

Eligibility Criteria:

• All arrest records without filed charges within 1 year of arrest
• Non-conviction records (dismissals, acquittals, successful diversion) upon disposition
• Petty Offenses after two years from sentence completion
• Class 1,2,3 misdemeanors after five years from sentence completion
• Class 3,4,5 felonies (excluding violent, sexual, domestic violence, stalking, vulnerable individuals, etc.) after 10 years from sentence completion
• Sealing applies at the case level (as opposed to charge) and most serious offense conditions apply.
• Payment of court imposed fines and fees are not factors for sealing eligibility

Agencies Involved – initiating agency*

• State Court Administrator’s Office (SCAO)*
• Colorado District Attorney’s Council (CDAC)
• Colorado Bureau of Investigation

Status: Active

Approach:

• State Court Administrator’s Office is responsible for compiling the list eligible conviction cases and submitting to the Colorado District Attorney’s Council (CDAC) who then distributes the list to District Attorneys, who have 45-days to object. Objections are excluded from “automatic sealing” and the reconciled list generates sealing orders.
• Seal Orders are currently mailed to CBI and staff conduct manual research to reconcile court case information with criminal history repository records.

Reported/Anticipated challenges

• Manual Review Processes at CBI. Seal order issuance is largely a paper-based process, while eligibility determination leverages electronic and structured data. CBI staff continue to manually review each criminal history record to comply with the seal order.
• Record matching among court orders and criminal history repository records. Court records frequently cannot be matched to criminal history records due to insufficient person-based and arrest identifiers. Similar to other states, criminal history repository assigns biometric based person identifiers that establish a positive identification for record subjects and corresponding arrest charge/case tracking. These identifiers are not consistently shared by stakeholders through the adjudication process and result in ‘orphaned’ arrest and disposition records.

Notifications

• Initial iteration of the legislation required the SCAO to notify defendants that the record has been sealed using the last known address. Subsequent bills and court rules eliminated this requirement and defendants will no longer be served with seal orders. SCAO developed a way for defendants to confidentially obtain verification that their criminal record has been sealed pursuant to 13-3-117 on the website. Sealed Case Search 

Outcomes

323,672 automated conviction seal orders were issued in February, 2024.

166,000 seal orders were issued as a result of the on-time non-conviction list in response to HB24-1133