Wednesday was the first day of a potential clean slate for up to 500,000 Minnesotans with minor and nonviolent criminal records, easing barriers to jobs, housing and education.

Minnesota's Clean Slate Act, which took effect Jan. 1, begins the process of automatically expunging eligible arrest and conviction records of people who have remained crime-free for two to five years, depending on the offense.

"Every human being makes mistakes—none of us are perfect. The Clean Slate law recognizes this shared human experience and affirms that people deserve the chance to move forward after being held accountable," Kahlee Griffey, co-founder and co-executive director of Until We Are All Free Movement, said in a news release on the new law. "A single bad day or choice should not determine someone's access to housing, employment, or a better future."

People who have committed petty and gross misdemeanor offenses are eligible if the charge has been dismissed or if a person successfully completed a diversion program or stay of adjudication.

Violent offenses and a long list of other crimes — such as harassment, stalking, DWI, indecent exposure and nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images — don't qualify.

Unlike in the past, when people with certain criminal records had to petition and pay fees to have courts seal records, the new law passed in 2023 will do it automatically for offenses that qualify.

The petition-based process remains in place for people with records who are not eligible for automated sealing.

Minnesota is among 12 states that have passed clean slate laws, according to the Clean Slate Initiative. The initiative's Data Model says an estimated 14 million people throughout the country qualify for a fully cleared record.

In a December Minnesota Star Tribune commentary, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Lauren Krisai, executive director of the Justice Action Network, said the new law's impact will be immediate.

While 60% of the more than 1 million Minnesotans with a criminal record are eligible to have their records expunged, just 5% go through the complicated and costly process, they wrote.

The law is separate from automated expungement of low-level cannabis crimes.