Hawai’i’s attorney general office completed the first year of a pilot program that automatically cleared 1,321 marijuana and low-level drug arrest records on the Big Island without requiring residents to file applications, according to a report submitted to the state Legislature in December. The records belonged to Hawai’i County residents who had been charged with possessing less than one ounce of marijuana or a similarly classified drug but were never convicted.
About 432,000 people statewide — roughly one-third of Hawai’i’s population — have at least one arrest record eligible for expungement, state data show, yet fewer than 1,500 apply through the existing petition process each year, the attorney general’s office reported. That figure represents fewer than 1% of those eligible.
The pilot, authorized by a 2024 bill from state Rep. David Tarnas, tested whether the state could initiate expungements rather than waiting for residents to navigate a fee-based procedure that fewer than 1% of eligible people complete annually. Tarnas said he plans to consider broader clean-slate legislation in the next session, after a state task force delivers its final report ahead of the 2027 legislative session.
How the Pilot Worked
Hawai’i decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2019. The pilot focused on Big Island residents who had faced charges for possessing a Schedule V drug — including marijuana and certain prescription medications such as codeine — but were never convicted.
Employees at the Hawai’i Criminal Justice Data Center spent 888 hours manually reviewing more than 2,200 potentially eligible arrest records, working in partnership with the Hawai’i County Police Department, according to the legislative report. Once the data center approved a record for expungement, the police department took an average of 45 days to confirm removal from its system.
As of the report’s filing, 860 records determined eligible through the pilot remained pending expungement.
“It’s a multi-step process, it costs money, and people are intimidated and they don’t do it,” Tarnas said of the existing petition procedure.
When a charge is expunged in Hawai’i, the record is cleared from a statewide criminal history database and from the arresting agency’s records. Even dismissed charges and not-guilty verdicts can appear in background checks absent expungement, the attorney general’s office noted.
The Barriers to Applying
Michelle Manalo, finance director of Going Home Hawai’i — a Big Island nonprofit serving formerly incarcerated people — said criminal records can close off housing and employment access at the moment people most need a fresh start.
After a 2011 drug conviction, Manalo said she faced rejections from at least eight apartment applications before finding housing through a landlord contact who did not require a formal application.
“So many closed doors on trying to acquire permanent housing,” she said.
Her record would not qualify for the pilot, which covered only people never convicted. She said the effort is nonetheless a meaningful advance for others trying to move forward.
Manalo also serves on the state’s Clean Slate Expungement Task Force, created by the Legislature in 2024 to develop a permanent state-initiated expungement program.
“People can change,” she said, “and they deserve a fresh start if records are preventing them from moving forward and creating a better life for themselves and their families.”
Costs and Constraints
Making state-initiated expungement permanent would cost around $15 million, the attorney general’s office estimated in its report. The office had opposed the 2024 bill that created the pilot, writing in testimony that identifying and locating everyone eligible for expungement without an application process would be “practically impossible.”
The existing one-page application, which carries a $35 fee, helps the state collect current contact information needed to notify recipients — information the state cannot reliably obtain otherwise, Toni Schwartz, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, said in an email.
“This process has already been reduced to a simple, one-page form, with a minimal fee,” the office wrote in its earlier testimony. “Those fees offset the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center personnel, equipment, and operational costs.”
Even through the petition process, convictions are rarely cleared. In 2024, 12 convictions were expunged; in 2025, 13 were.
Clean Slate Laws Across the Country
Thirteen other states have some form of state-initiated expungement, the legislative report noted. Pennsylvania became the first in 2018, allowing low-level misdemeanors to be automatically sealed after a waiting period; the law has since been revised to include certain non-violent felonies.
California’s 2022 law requiring automatic sealing of all cannabis-related charges has resulted in more than 216,000 people getting their records cleared, said Adrian Rocha, policy director for the Last Prisoner Project and a member of Hawai’i’s Clean Slate Expungement Task Force. Illinois is the most recent state to enact such a measure, requiring its state police to identify eligible records and notify clerks to initiate sealing.
Rocha said the economic case for expansion is strong.
“These are really people who are trying to move past what was once the worst day of their life, and they are impeded by the fact that this criminal record continues to drag them behind,” he said.
A 2024 study by RAND found that 75% of people with a first conviction are not convicted of another crime within 10 years, and that the likelihood of reoffending declines over time.
Aditi Sherikar, public policy director for the Clean Slate Initiative — a national organization working to automate record sealing and expungement — said the broader goal of clean slate laws extends beyond marijuana charges.
“It’s about giving as many people as possible a chance to successfully meet their potential without the burden of an old criminal record hanging over them,” she said.
What Comes Next in Hawai’i
Tarnas said he plans to wait for the Clean Slate Expungement Task Force’s final report — due before the start of the 2027 legislative session — before drafting new legislation. He also wants to give the attorney general’s office time to finish clearing the 860 records still pending from the pilot.
“I believe in redemption, and I believe in giving people a chance to rebuild their lives after they made a stupid mistake,” Tarnas said. “I think that’s the fair thing to do.”
Reporting by Madeleine Valera, Honolulu Civil Beat, distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.