Hawaii Clean Slate Law: Where Automatic Expungement Actually Stands in 2026

If you've been reading about Clean Slate laws in Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Utah and wondering whether Hawaii has followed suit — it hasn't. Not yet. The state studied the idea, rejected the broad version, and is still in the task-force phase of deciding what (if anything) to implement.

Here's exactly where things stand and what you should do instead of waiting.

What Happened to HB 1663

In 2024, the Hawaii legislature considered HB 1663, which would have established automatic, state-initiated expungement for thousands of adult convictions:

• Misdemeanors would have become eligible for automatic clearing after five crime-free years
• Non-violent Class C felonies would have become eligible after seven crime-free years

The bill failed. The legislature decided the implementation challenges were too significant to move forward with a broad automatic program.

The Clean Slate Expungement Task Force

Instead of automatic expungement, the legislature passed Act 241 (SB 2706) in 2024, creating the Clean Slate Expungement Task Force. The task force is attached to the judiciary for administrative purposes and charged with:

• Studying the feasibility of state-initiated, automatic record clearing
• Evaluating the technical capacity of the HCJDC's databases
• Reviewing the experiences of other states that implemented Clean Slate laws
• Submitting legislative recommendations

The task force submitted interim reports before the 2025 and 2026 sessions. Its final report is due before the 2027 legislative session. The task force dissolves on June 1, 2027.

Until those recommendations become law — which requires the legislature to pass a separate bill based on the task force's findings — there is no automatic conviction expungement in Hawaii.

The Cannabis Pilot: What It Proved

While the broad Clean Slate bill failed, the legislature did test state-initiated expungement through a targeted pilot program.

Act 62 (2024) directed the Attorney General to automatically expunge arrest records for minor marijuana possession charges (HRS § 712-1249) in Hawaii County (the Big Island) — without any application or fee from the record holder. The state identified eligible records and processed them at no cost to the individual.

In 2025, Act 5 (HB 132) expanded the pilot to cover possession of any Schedule V substance in any amount, because the state's criminal justice database frequently couldn't distinguish between marijuana and other substances under the same statute.

By early 2026, the pilot had successfully expunged 1,321 records for Big Island residents. But the administrative reports highlighted exactly the obstacles that killed the broader Clean Slate bill:

Incomplete database records. The state's central Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) frequently lacks critical details like the specific drug involved or the final court disposition.

Manual verification bottlenecks. HCJDC staff had to physically retrieve original arrest records from county police departments and court documents from the judiciary to verify eligibility — they couldn't determine it from database entries alone.

System isolation. County police, courts, and the HCJDC operate on separate, non-integrated databases. Fully automating expungement would require major data infrastructure upgrades.

The pilot proved the concept works on a small scale with heavy manual intervention. Scaling it statewide for all offense categories is a different problem entirely.

What This Means for You Right Now

If you're waiting for Hawaii to pass a Clean Slate law before taking action on your record, you could be waiting years — the task force won't even deliver its final recommendations until 2027, and legislation based on those recommendations would take at least another session to pass.

In the meantime, Hawaii's existing expungement pathways are available now:

• Non-conviction arrests (dismissals, acquittals, completed deferred acceptance pleas) are eligible for administrative expungement through the HCJDC under HRS § 831-3.2
• First-time drug, property, and under-21 DUI convictions have their own statutory expungement tracks
• Juvenile records can be sealed through Family Court under HRS § 571-88

The Hawaii Expungement & Record Sealing Guide covers every currently available pathway, so you don't have to wait for legislation that may or may not arrive. If your record qualifies under existing law, the process can start today.

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