Pennsylvania criminal records linked to $14.7 billion in lost earnings

• But arrest and conviction records still cause an estimated $14.7 billion a year in lost earnings statewide, per a new report from the Clean Slate Initiative.

The big picture: People who have been arrested or convicted of a crime can have a harder path to finding jobs, even after putting their legal troubles behind them.

• Nationally, people arrested or convicted of a crime suffer about $440 billion in lost wages every year, per the CSI.

State of play: Pennsylvania ranks seventh nationally in estimated annual earnings losses, behind states including California, Florida and Texas.

• More than 1.6 million Pennsylvanians have had their records fully or partially sealed through the state's Clean Slate policy — more than Michigan (912,000) and Connecticut (171,000), per the report.

Zoom in: More than a dozen states have adopted Clean Slate policies, but eligibility rules vary — especially around felony convictions.

• Misdemeanors account for the largest share of the nation's estimated losses — $187.7 billion annually.
• Black respondents with violent felony convictions saw steeper reductions in expected annual earnings compared with Black peers without records.

By the numbers: Even an arrest that doesn't result in a conviction is associated with about $4,400 in lost annual earnings, while the estimated penalty rises to $9,300 for a nonviolent felony.

• Pennsylvania's biggest losses: misdemeanor convictions — $8.12 billion a year.
• People in their prime working years — between ages 26 and 40 — lose out on about $72,000 for an arrest or non-conviction record to $159,000 for a violent felony conviction.

Reality check: Those findings can complicate the path for people like Flanagan, who sought a fresh start when he moved to Philadelphia last year following a dark descent into drug addiction.

Flashback: Now sober for eight years, the 45-year-old Flanagan got his foot in the door at a Denver electrical company that didn't require a background check.

• He later joined an electricians union apprenticeship, but he worried that he'd lose out on opportunities as he advanced in his career if his Colorado record resurfaced, including during a more rigorous screening process he went through for a job at a regional nuclear power plant.

What they're saying: "They know everything that I've ever done anywhere — all of my goods, all of my bads," Flanagan tells Axios.

Flashback: Flanagan was first introduced to marijuana in his early 20s, while serving in the Army National Guard in Colorado.

• He was about to deploy to Iraq when he failed a drug test and was discharged, sending him into a deep spiral of depression and drug use.

"My identity got taken," he says. "I felt bad for myself and like I wasn't worth anything after that."

• He committed several crimes, most of them petty offenses such as theft, before finally getting clean.
• He's now fully immersed in recovery, attending meetings, meeting with a sponsor and even mentoring others just starting their paths to sobriety.

The bottom line: Flanagan hopes more states recognize the value of Clean Slate laws in giving people who have taken ownership of their past problems a path forward.

• "It was not cool. Like it was wrong for me to do, and I have to live with that," he says. "But that doesn't mean that I have to live like that."