Lawmakers can help former inmates trying to clean slates, get lives back on track

I had an opportunity not long ago to do something a bit different: I joined a mentorship program to give entrepreneurial advice to incarcerated individuals who are getting ready for a fresh start.

During the session, one gentleman who had been baking lots of cookies while in prison came up to me and told me that he wanted to become a baker when he got out. He asked me for my advice on how to start his own business.

Now, as the owner of a wholesale bakery, I have a soft spot for warm cookies and a lot of respect for anyone with that kind of passion. But I also know how tough starting a small business is, so I gave it to him straight: I told him that even though people love cookies, there’s also a lot of competition in the baking space. If he’s going to be successful, he will have to offer a product that’s truly unique or special.

But what I didn’t tell him is that as a formerly incarcerated individual, he may face challenges when launching a small business that go beyond choosing the right percentage of cacao for his chocolate chips or selecting the perfect temperature for his oven.

Justice-impacted individuals can have difficulty obtaining occupational licenses, securing loans from private banks or the U.S. Small Business Administration and renting commercial property — depending on the circumstances that led to their incarceration.

This is a concern here in Illinois where more than 2 million people are eligible for some form of criminal record relief. This is significant, because old criminal records reduce the likelihood of an individual finding a job, depress wages and often lead to early exits from the labor market. It’s no wonder that old criminal records also make it harder for small-business owners like me to find candidates for open positions.

Complex process needs streamlining

Illinois law offers a solution to these problems, but our existing record-sealing system is flawed. Like many states, Illinois’ current system requires a petition to be approved before a criminal record can be sealed, but that system isn’t able to meet the needs of most justice-impacted individuals.

The overwhelming majority of people in Illinois who are already eligible to have their records sealed struggle to navigate a petition process that can be complex, confusing and costly. The result is most eligible individuals don’t even try. Those who do make an attempt often experience backlogs and long timelines at the court level because of the strain the current process places on local courts.

Fortunately, during the 2025 legislative session, Illinois lawmakers will have the opportunity to improve our "clean slate" policies with legislation that would eliminate our petition-based system and replace it with an automated process.

Those who qualify would include people who were arrested but never convicted of a crime and those with misdemeanor convictions who completed their sentence two years prior. Even individuals with felony convictions could have their records sealed automatically once three years have passed after finishing their sentence.

Notably, very serious criminal offenses such as violent crimes would not be eligible for automated record-sealing.

This sort of legislative update is overwhelmingly supported by small business owners, 85% of whom agree that clean slate policies would benefit small businesses in their efforts to hire and recruit employees, according to research by Small Business Majority.

As a small-business owner who has hired justice-impacted individuals — including at the management level — the most important factor I consider is whether or not I think a prospective hire can do the job. Their criminal history is not a major consideration, and it shouldn’t stop nonviolent, justice-impacted individuals from having the opportunity to work for me — or to be my competition.

We can make this a reality by bringing Illinois’ clean slate laws into the 21st century.

Johnathon Bush is owner of Not Just Cookies in Chicago and is one of the 85,000 members of Small Business Majority’s network.

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