The Restoration of Rights Project

Have you ever been arrested? Do you have a prior conviction?

Do you wonder whether you can clean up your record and how that affects you, if at all?

Start here. It’s called the Restoration of Rights Project, and it looks at the law in every state for restoring your rights and status after an arrest or conviction. It covers federal law, too.

For each state, the Project compiles answers to these questions:

1. Whether and how you can seal, expunge, or dismiss your arrest or conviction.
2. Whether and how you can restore your civil rights, like the right to vote.
3. Whether and how your state’s laws affect your chance of landing a job or license, losing one, or getting it back.
4. Whether your state has a regular process to apply for a pardon and how often it grants one.
5. Whether and how you can stop having to register as a sex offender.

It’s a great resource not just for lawyers and the courts but for, in its words, “the millions of Americans with a criminal record who are seeking to put their past behind them.”