Second Chances In Wisconsin

Doors don’t open themselves—people and policy do. We sit down with survivor and advocate Shanyeill McCloud, founder of Clean Slate, to unpack how Wisconsin’s tight expungement rules shut deserving people out and how the revived Pardon Advisory Board created a powerful path to redemption. Shanielle explains why document prep is only half the story; the other half is people preparation—coaching clients to articulate growth, take accountability, and face an intimidating hearing with clarity and courage.

You’ll hear from Dante Wren, who transformed a 2002 conviction into a mission to serve. He breaks down the fear that stops many from applying, the step-by-step coaching that rebuilt his confidence, and the life on the other side of a signature—working in corrections to mentor young people at their most uncertain moment. His story shows how a clean slate can restore not only employment and rights but also identity, purpose, and the ability to lead at home.

We also dig into the gaps: why expungement in Wisconsin often fails, how five simple pardon criteria quietly make thousands eligible, and why women—especially women of color—remain underrepresented among recipients despite critical shortages in nursing, teaching, and public safety.  Shanyeill outlines plans to scale satellite help desks and launch a women-focused program in Dane County, pairing redemption with workforce needs to turn barriers into pipelines.

If you or someone you love has been off supervision for five years, has no open cases, and is not on the sex offender registry, you may qualify. Learn the process, choose a support tier—from DIY guidance to full-service prep—and get ready to present your best case. Subscribe, share this conversation with someone who needs hope, and leave a review to help more people find a real path to a clean slate.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:08

What's up, everybody? This is your host, D Star, here with Shanielle McLeod. And Dante Ren. How are you guys doing today? I'm great. Good. So for the people that don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_02: 0:19

Sure. My name is Shanielle McLeod. I'm the owner and founder of the Clean Slate Expungement and Parton Help Desk. It's a second-chance social enterprise for men and women that have made mistakes in their past, paid their debt to society, and now are seeking legal pathways out of poverty. I started Clean Slate in 2012 as an effort to reduce joblessness, homelessness, uh crime and recidivism here in the state of Wisconsin, mainly in Milwaukee, a born and raised in the city of Milwaukee. So what started me into this is for one, I'm a survivor of domestic violence. The only way I was able to survive was by fighting back. And um, but fighting back landed me with my first and only conviction. So, you know, I started off as one of those people who was a goody two shoes in a relationship that was just ended badly. And uh I fought back, and I feel like I've been fighting back ever since because, like I said, I it landed me with my first and only conviction, which uh I lost, you know, my job at that time. I was working for North Forest and Mutual Life Insurance. Uh, had been working there fresh out of high school. So corporate America was all I knew, but I I couldn't go back, you know, to corporate America. And so, you know, I was found out about expungement of criminal records, and um I became obsessed, some would say possessed, you know, with the concept because uh I actually went back to school and trying to learn the expungement process, you know, a lot of the law was unfamiliar with it, it was hard to read. So I went back to MATC, uh became a paralegal, and I started interning with the legal actions of the world and I learned the process A to Z, you know, how to do expungement. So I started questioning like, well, why aren't we, you know, doing expungement for people who live right here in the inner city? Because all of our clientele came from the suburbs. And they was like, well, if you want to help those people, you do it yourself. So boom, I had to start Clean Slate Milwaukee with no prior, you know, business experience, no prior nonprofit experience. So I developed uh second chance staffing as a school project because I went back to school, Brian and Stradin for business. And so in business class, you had to develop a project. And so my project was uh was a temporary agency for felons. And I was like, well, if I'm having a hard time finding a job with a misdemeanor, just imagine what someone with a felony is going through. So I started second-chance staffing uh as a nonprofit in 2014 and started working with the Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiatives and other re-entry community organizations as to A, get the word out, you know, that the possibility to expunge your record exists. After learning the process, I try to help myself. So, you know, it started off being about me, then about my family. You know, I started helping members of my family, you know, get their records expunged, then starting.

SPEAKER_01: 3:14

Were you successful in any?

SPEAKER_02: 3:16

I I helped my mother.

SPEAKER_01: 3:17

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02: 3:17

Yes, so I helped my mother. My mother had something on her record that was actually dismissed, but it stopped her from going into um med school. And I remember my mother trying to go to you know med school, medical college, um, when I was younger, when I was real little. But when I was adult, I seen nothing actualized. So I was like, well, what happened? So when she told me it was her record, which I didn't know, it was something that happened in 1980. I wasn't even born yet, you know. So that just shows how long things stay on your record and can impact you from opportunities later on. So, like I said, I started with my family, was successful with my family, practicing with neighbors and you know, cousins and stuff like that. Then I moved on to the job center. Moved on to the job center, start helping people in the job centers, you know, get their records, you know, expunged, and really was kind of hitting brick walls because of how narrow the expungement laws are. Everybody is not qualified. They may as, you know, be as deserving of as a second chance as they may be, they may not be qualified because of how stringent the uh Wisconsin expungement laws are. So I when I even when I double back to get my own record expunged, I learned that I still was not qualified because the laws was not break, was not made retroactive. So that's how I began to advocate. So we got into policy, got into start trying to expand the Wisconsin expungement process to for one, remove the age limit, uh, to make it retroactive. So people from back in the 70s, 80s, 90s also have the opportunity as second chances to take away at the time of sentencing. Right now, as it stands, in order to be eligible to have your record expunged, it has to be stipulated at the time of sentencing. You can meet all, you can check out, check off all the other boxes, but if the judge did not stipulate it at the time of sentencing, it's not happening.

SPEAKER_01: 5:12

And a lot of people don't know to ask for that when they're, you know, and they're pre-sentencing and you know, when they go down go and speak to the DA and try to make a deal uh and they sign that paperwork, nine times out of ten, your lawyer's not gonna say, hey, you should think about asking for this. So once you're done serving your time and paid your debt to society, that you will be you could be eligible for this.

SPEAKER_02: 5:39

Correct, correct. And a lot of times you don't know what you don't know. So you if you never even heard of expungement, how you know to ask for it?

SPEAKER_01: 5:46

And especially if it's your first case, you know, and it's like you don't, you're new to the process, you have no idea what an expungement is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 5:52

That's exactly, that's exactly right. So even when I double back and I asked the judge, and she was like, Well, I'm sorry, you didn't say it at the time of sentencing. And she was like, Well, and let me just backtrack and she was even at the time of sentencing, she was like, I'm gonna make an example out of you.

SPEAKER_01: 6:07

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02: 6:07

Yeah, she, you know, I I had never been in trouble before then, never been in trouble since then. But um, yeah, so she she wanted to make an example out of me and and gave me that that case. And um, so I I went back to her and she was like, Well, you didn't ask for it, so I can't give you the expungement.

SPEAKER_01: 6:24

Well, even if I did know about it, you know, I would be intimidated to ask her if she just said, I'm gonna make an example out of you, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02: 6:34

Yeah, it's it's it's extremely intimidating, you know, especially if you you're young, that's your first time in the courtroom, and you just surrounded by things you they they speak in languages you don't understand. You know, some people plead out to anything, you know. They people take pleas and you know, and make deals there 10, 20 years probation, yeah, which is just a trap.

SPEAKER_00: 6:56

Or the worst part is when they wave their preliminary, that's one of the worst things you can do is wave your preliminary because that's your opportunity to see everything that you're up against. And if you wave it, that's like omitting guilt immediately.

SPEAKER_02: 7:11

And so, yeah, we know these things now in hindsight, but when we was at that table at that time, it was just all, you know, you know, everything was moving real fast, and you just trying to get out of there. You know, I had I had kids I needed to get back home too. And that's all my whole goal was just to get back home to my kids. So fast forward to um you just helping, you know, just grow the company, just uh doing more advocacy, you know, trying to expand the opportunity for more people. We had some wins, we had some losses because we still have not been able to expand expungement in the state of Wisconsin. However, in 2019, something historical happened where our current governor, Tony Evers, re-established the Parton Advisory Board. And when he established that board and opened it up for people who have felony convictions, not misdemeanors, but felony convictions, in order to be qualified, you have to be off probation or have served your sentence for five years. So off probation for five years, and you cannot be on a sex offender registry, cannot have any open cases in Wisconsin or any other state. And a lot of people, because of that criteria, that made thousands of people eligible, you know, where they were not eligible for expungement, but they was eligible for a pardon, and the doors open and we've been off to the races. The second that door opened up, we were already prepared to take off running.

SPEAKER_01: 8:35

So, how many people would you say you've helped get pardons and expungements?

SPEAKER_02: 8:40

Expungements is really hard to narrow down because, like I said, we've been doing it since 2012. So we've been doing um, you know, clients where we do the work for them, and then we have clients where we, you know, do it yourself options. So people that go off and do it themselves, you know, periodically they'd be like, oh yeah, I got it done. Sometimes they get it done and don't double back and tell me. So the numbers, it was, you know, before the board opened up, we were somewhere around 2,000, as far as people that we've been able to serve, and you know, people who've gotten their records expunged, you know, probably 25% of that. But when it comes to pardons, Dante was like number 40 something.

SPEAKER_01: 9:22

But um So he's one of the OGs.

SPEAKER_02: 9:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so, so to date, uh, we are 520 applications that we've done. And of those 520, 11 have been denied.

SPEAKER_01: 9:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 9:38

Yeah, so we we have a really good success rate, but I but I don't want to promote that this is what we can get this part done for you. Always want to make that disclaimer that our job is to do doc prep. I'm a paralegal, I've been a paralegal for 14 years. We do document preparation, but in in addition to document preparation, we do people preparation. We make sure that not only is your documentation is done professionally and accurately, but we want to make sure that we can coach and consult our client to be ready for that hearing because you will have to go before what they call a partner advisory board. And that too can be an intimidating situation. So we want to make sure that we coach our clients, we help them develop their why, we vet them. So, you know, we're not just a benefit to the client in the community, but we're a benefit to the partner advisory board and the governor as well, because we serve as a secondary vetting system. So we're gonna vet the clients before the board gets a chance to vet you. So by the time you see the governor, you've been double vetted because none of us want to put our name on an application that a person may reoffend. If we have, if I get any inkling of a person that is still has not rehabilitated, has still has still have a criminal mindset, it's still, you know, have what they call reservations of doing criminal activity. It's a no, it's a no-go. I will not take that client. Because we've helped so many people, we have a lot of tremendous, you know, success stories, and a lot of people can speak to. And I wanted to introduce Dante Wren as one of our success stories of people who have come through the program. He's a father, he's a husband, he's a family man that was deserving of a second chance. And I'll let him introduce himself.

SPEAKER_00: 11:27

Hi, my name is Dante Wren. As she said, I was once convicted of a crime when I was younger, early 2002. I knew that wasn't the person that I was. It wasn't what I want to represent it for myself and for my family. And after my conviction, I put in tremendous amount of work of rehabilitating myself and earning my pardon and trying to be an asset to my community. And with a strong, strong support system and with her help, I was able to get that accomplished.

SPEAKER_01: 11:59

So can you take us kind of through the process and what you were feeling when you first started your journey to get your pardon?

SPEAKER_00: 12:06

I was nervous because, you know, I know how important it was, and I know what it can do for me and my family. So it's it's nerve-wracking because you don't know if you're gonna get it, but all you can do is swing at it, do your best. I was to be honest with you, I was completely nervous. I was completely nervous because as a man, you want to be an asset to your family and be able to provide and be able to teach and be able to show your children the proper ways of living life and how to how to live life. But, you know, after you make a mistake, you feel like hope is gone. And with this program, it just reiterated all hope was still there.

SPEAKER_01: 12:50

So, did she do all of the things that she said that she can do as far as you know, the people coaching's part? Because we know that she did her, we we know that she did her job with the preparation because you got the partner. Yes. But walk us through the people preparation. How was that experience for you?

SPEAKER_00: 13:07

It was it was life-changing. It was a lot of, you know, just making sure that I was really, really qualified for this part and to make sure that I was really a good candidate, because, you know, these people are putting their names on the line for you to be rehabilitated and for you to enter back into society with a clean slate at life with these doors being reopened to you. And I want to just she really want to make sure you're the type of person that's ready for that, because some people are not ready for that. So what I understand what she wants and what she's looking for, she's looking for people who's really ready to make a life change and really, really deserving of getting this opportunity after a one-time mistake. You know what I'm saying? Because everybody probably had a one-time mistake, but you know, we really want to make sure that you're really you're ready to move forward with your life after making that mistake and you learned your lesson, and you're here to help society progress.

SPEAKER_01: 14:07

So I wanted to know if you could speak to the fear that you had of even starting that process or you know, in the in the interim of starting that process, because I know a barrier for a lot of people is the fear of rejection.

SPEAKER_00: 14:21

Yeah, just the fear of nothing's gonna change. Like you're gonna be stuck doing the same thing. You made that mistake mean that you're gonna be stuck in this position for the rest of your life. You'll forever be just accepting any kind of employment, any kind of wage, any kind of treatment, because the conviction that you, the crime that you've been convicted with now has you stuck in a position where you can't progress. You know what I'm saying? So that when you when you start thinking like, oh, I'm gonna try to get this removed, but if they don't do it, this is how things are gonna be. And what's the purpose of even trying if nothing's gonna change?

SPEAKER_01: 15:03

Going down that negative rapid hill.

SPEAKER_00: 15:05

But she helped build up your confidence to let you know that, you know, keep hope alive. This is gonna change. You have a second chance. Your mistake is not gonna hinder you your whole way long as you've been walking a certain path and you've been staying clean and you've been working and you've been staying out of trouble and you've been changing your environment and the type of people that you surround yourself with, you know what I'm saying? Long as she, oh, you check all those boxes, she'll jump in your fight.

SPEAKER_01: 15:33

So she brought you here for a reason. Yes, sir. Um, because you're an exemplary success story. So after receiving your pardon, what did you do with that pardon?

SPEAKER_00: 15:44

After I received my pardon, I took off running. After I received my pardon, I didn't look back. I actually pursued a career in corrections. I'm actually in that field now, helping people who was similar to me as a youth with maybe catching a conviction for the first time and don't know what to do and don't know what they're up against and don't know where to go next. You know what I'm saying? I feel like I'm someone that can give them some advice, some hope, some some motivation that their life isn't over yet. They just hit a roll bump, and if they walk a straight path and it's straight and do things the right way, they can rehabilitate themselves and they can get their um rights and they um their amendments back.

SPEAKER_01: 17:08

So you started on the other side of the bars. Yes, I did. And now you serve those same people that you would you that you were formerly incarcerated with. Yes, I do. That's amazing. How does that make you feel?

SPEAKER_00: 17:20

It's it's overwhelming sometimes. Sometimes when I'm at work, you know, sometimes I get choked up because I've because I understand what other people in my profession don't understand. The the anxiety, the the the nervousness, the the just just the mind games that going through that process does to you when you're in that situation that that you just don't know what your future may hold. So I try to give the people who was in a position I was in, hope that it's not as bad as it looked. Just keep faith, and and it's a way that you have to walk moving forward, and it's a way that you have to do things moving forward, but you can get your life back.

SPEAKER_01: 18:05

Wow, man, that's that's awesome. So, what's next?

SPEAKER_02: 18:09

What's next is I will really love to get the stories out. I've been collecting a lot of uh testimonials and people, and I was like, man, I I I want the world to hear what I get a chance to hear. I want the world to see what I get a chance to see. I get a chance to see 360 transformations. I get a chance to see people that have come to me that was that was just almost defeated. They only had it in them to try one more time, and they're willing to bet on me. So if they're willing to bet on me, I'm willing to bet on them. You know, I'm a fighter and you want somebody like me on your team. You want somebody like me that's gonna help you fight. Definition of success is where preparation meets opportunity. I prepared for this opportunity for a long time. Didn't even know what I was preparing for. But I'm ready, you know, to take this to the next step, go national, statewide first, then grow nationally and establish pardon help desks in other states. We've helped people in Texas, we've helped people in Georgia, you know, we're looking at helping somebody with a pardon out of Michigan. But one thing I will say, something historical has happened in the state of Wisconsin to where we used to be known for mass incarceration. Now we're we're tilting the scales on mass liberation. If we get a governor that comes in and continues the work of Tony Evers, we can really be tilting the scales, you know, on how people address and um formerly incarcerated people and don't just count them out. Don't just count people out. Yeah, if they made a mistake in the past, but there's a lot of hidden talent, and I get a chance to see it. You know, that's a lot of hidden brilliance. There's a lot of young men that is is not in environments that that nurtures their brilliance.

SPEAKER_01: 19:48

A lot of women too, girls too. And that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to uh touch on your advocacy for the women in the pardon.

SPEAKER_02: 19:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 19:59

Uh, because I know that's uh near and dear to your heart, and you gave me some facts and statistics about you know the percentage of women that actually receive pardons, and uh you wanted to help change that. So can you speak on that?

SPEAKER_02: 20:13

With the recent announcement of our governor to not seek reelection, there's no guarantee that that board is gonna stay open. And if it does, wonderful. But one thing I've noticed is the recipients of these pardons, even expungements, women are like less than 20%. Women of color is less than 10%. So going forward, I would love to do more advocacy and more promotion and advertising and marketing to women, get more women through the process. We were just talking about shortages. We have a nursing shortage, shortage and correctional officers, police officers. A pardon is the only way to get to those industries. It's the only way. So I would love to.

SPEAKER_01: 20:55

Yeah, think about how many little girls always wanted to be uh a nurse, yeah, a doctor. Yeah. Um, they wanted to be a fireman, they wanted to be a correctional officer, police officer with that record, you know, and they make one mistake and now that's exactly right closed to them forever. But it's like with a stroke of a pen, there's your workforce right there.

SPEAKER_02: 21:14

We want to make sure women are supported. Women and men contact me for different reasons. A lot of times men go into, like I said, trucking, they they want their Second Amendments. Well, women come to me for specific reasons. They go, women, for the most part, are nurturers. They're going into the cares field, health care, child care, elder care. They want to do group homes. They want to do, they want to be teachers. We have a shortage in teachers. So, how can we make sure that women have what they need to be more successful as well? Can't lead the women out. You know, as a woman, as a formerly incarcerated woman, I know who was on the front lines with making sure a lot of these policies got passed in the first place. Who was it that was going to Madison for the lobby days to making sure that we expressed the importance of opening up that pardon advisory board? But when that board opened up, it was men that rushed through. It's men that's getting pardons.

SPEAKER_01: 22:07

So you said that you wanted to create a program specifically for women in the Dane County area. Can you speak to us a little bit about that? Or do you want to save that until you got everything going? But just to put people on notice, that will be coming soon.

SPEAKER_02: 22:24

The whole goal of this is redemption. This is all redemption work. I don't say I don't, I don't do re-entry work, I do redemption work. So making sure that um women know that, hey, this applies to you too. You know, we can help you as well, you know, get through this. But yes, I wanna I'm gonna uh focus, you know. 2026, we will focus more on women and making sure that women, you know, get have access to expungement and pardon opportunities as well.

SPEAKER_01: 22:54

So, how can people get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_02: 22:57

We have a website, cleanslatemke.com. Feel free to go on, check us out. We have an office here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I would love to begin to set up satellite offices in, you know, Dane County, Racine County, Kenosha County for people because we have formerly incarcerated people all over the state. Like I said, we was just known as the most incarcerated state there was in all 50 states, if not the world. So there is no shortage of people who have records that are seeking opportunity. It benefits us all to make sure that anyone that's trying gets help.

SPEAKER_01: 23:33

Okay, so one last time, hit us with the qualifications.

SPEAKER_02: 23:38

So, in order to qualify to have a pardon in the state of Wisconsin, you have to be off probation for five years. You cannot be on the sex offender registry, you cannot have any open cases or independent cases in Wisconsin or any other states.

SPEAKER_01: 23:55

And that's it.

SPEAKER_02: 23:56

That's it.

SPEAKER_01: 23:56

And that's it. So I speak to a lot of people, and then they they say, Oh, I I can't do this, uh, you know, I don't, I don't think I would qualify. Most of you guys do. Just based off of those qualifications right there. Most of you guys qualify. So if you are looking for someone to help you in that process, there's two tiers to this. So there's a do-it-yourself option and there's a full service option. So the do-it-yourself option is where she walks you through the paperwork, helps you fill it out, and then it gets filed. And then the full service is um where you she does it all for you, and then you get the the people coaching. Yeah. So take advantage of those products and services if you're interested in that, or if you have a loved one that's interested in, or somebody that might not be qualified right now, but maybe next year they're qualified. Maybe they hit, you know, their five years next year. Maybe you start the paperwork now. Maybe you call and have the conversation now to try to get ready for that person. It's all about preparation. So, like she just said, preparation meets opportunity equals success. Here's your opportunity. Now let's start the preparation and you'll be successful. Thank you guys. I really appreciate you guys for coming through a wealth of knowledge. I'm D Star. Until next time, guys.