As leaders at all levels of government work to “build back better”—and to address the nation’s legacy of racial injustice and persistent racial inequality—removing barriers to employment for workers with records is more urgently needed than ever amid the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and downturn, to ensure not only a full but an equitable recovery that does not leave tens of millions of system-impacted individuals and families behind. As Off-Kilter closes out our #SecondChanceMonth series for the month of April, we’re bringing you a conversation Rebecca had earlier this week with a group of state leaders who’ve been advancing transformative “clean slate” and fair chance licensing reforms in recent years:

Michigan Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II

Sharon Dietrich, litigation director at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia

Representative Jordan Harris, Minority Whip of the Pennsylvania Assembly

Josh Hoe, policy analyst at Safe and Just Michigan

Whitley Carpenter, criminal justice staff attorney at Forward Justice in North Carolina

Jael Myrick, interim director of the Clean Slate practice at the East Bay Community Law Center in California