The Detroit Pistons and the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition are teaming up for an expungement event at the team’s practice facility Saturday, April 11, the five year anniversary of the passage of Michigan’s Clean Slate legislation.
The Social Impact Summit is an initiative designed to advance equity and opportunity for justice-impacted individuals, the Pistons said in a news release.
The event will bring together community stakeholders including Project Clean Slate and Henry Ford Health to provide on-site services for attendees. Project Clean Slate is a city expungement program that guides residents through the process.
Since April 2023 when the law took effect, over 1.4 million convictions have been cleared, allowing individuals to pass background checks for jobs and housing.
Individuals will be able to access to record sealing support, driver’s license restoration, mental health resources, and additional assistance designed to help remove barriers to long-term stability and success.
The Social Impact Summit will be hosted at the Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center (6201 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48202) and is open to the public.
You can pre-register for one of two sessions (10am-noon, 1-3 p.m.) at the Social Impact Summit by visiting pistons.com/socialimpactsummit. Pre-registration will remain open until the summit has reached capacity.
Walk-in availability will be extremely limited, so the team is encouraging interested participants to pre-register prior to the event.
“Detroit is a city built on resilience, and we believe everyone deserves a fair opportunity to move forward,” said Chris Economeas, Sr. Director of Community & Social Responsibility for the Detroit Pistons. “Through the Social Impact Summit, we’re proud to work with the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition and our community partners to help remove barriers facing justice-impacted Detroiters, connect individuals to critical resources and reinforce our commitment to equity, second chances and meaningful change in our city.”
Participants will also have the opportunity to learn about existing laws and pending legislation aimed at reducing record-related barriers and fostering second chances in addition to receiving information on mental health, civic engagement and fair housing.
“The Social Impact Summit reflects what’s possible when community partners come together with intention,” said James Cadogan, Executive Director of the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition. “Together with the Detroit Pistons and local leaders, we’re helping justice-impacted individuals remove longstanding barriers and access critical resources to take meaningful steps toward stability, opportunity and a fresh start.”
On October 13, 2020, Public Act 193 of 2020 was signed into law with an effective date of April 11, 2021. The act included a group of bills collectively known as the “Clean Slate” package.
These bills have changed the rules and procedures an individual may use to have prior convictions set aside.
The Clean Slate package also created a process to automatically set aside certain convictions without an application. The new automatic process required the Michigan State Police (MSP) to make technical changes to the Criminal History Record (CHR) database.