Nolan Center for Justice Closes Out Second Chance Month

April was Second Chance Month, a month dedicated to celebrating and advancing criminal justice reform programs, and CPAC Foundation’s Nolan Center for Justice closed out the month with a fireside chat and by participating in Clean Slate Initiative’s Clean Slate Act Champions Roundtable.  

Nolan Center for Justice joined criminal justice reform advocates, Representatives Kelly Armstrong and Lisa Blunt Rochester, and more at the Clean Slate Act Champions Roundtable to celebrate the progress of the Clean Slate Act. The Clean Slate Act is a bipartisan effort to seal the criminal records of non-violent offenders, making it easier for them to find gainful employment and rebuild their lives as productive citizens.  

As Armstrong summarized, “The Clean Slate Act is bipartisan legislation that aims to remove barriers to give Americans with low-level and nonviolent criminal records a second chance to find meaningful employment.” 

The act was first introduced in Congress in 2021 by Rochester and was introduced again in April of 2023. The bill has since gained two cosponsors from both the Democrat and Republican sides and has spread across the country on the state level to twelve different states.  

Nolan Center for Justice continued the discussion about second chance policies by hosting a fireside chat with Re-entry Working Group, Prison Fellowship Advocacy, and Safer Foundation. Together they celebrated a successful Second Chance Month and talked re-entry policies that will support offenders’ successful transition back into society. 

Nolan Center General Counsel David Safavian said of the event on X: “Had the opportunity to discuss the importance of supervision reform, rehabilitation and re-entry with a room full of Capitol Hill staffers. Why are these things important? Because if we can keep ex-offenders from re-offending, we make every neighborhood safer.” 

Learn more about Nolan Center for Justice’s Second Chance Month initiatives and all of their projects at conservativejusticereform.org and on X @ACUforJustice.