Most people don't know they can get their juvenile records erased. Thanks to a group of young people, there's now an app for that.

For all the ways government affects young people, there still aren’t many avenues for them to influence public policy. But that's less true in Cook County, Ill., where a youth advisory board has become an in-house think tank for improving the local juvenile justice system.

Three years ago, a group of high school- and college-age students in Cook County spent a summer studying ways to ease the transition from youth detention centers back to the community. The students found that a lot of young people didn't know they were eligible to have their records expunged, and the ones who did still weren't sure how to start the process. 

The students wanted to make the process more accessible, so they created Expunge.io, a free website and smartphone app that helps Cook County residents erase their records of arrests, charges and minor convictions that happened before they were 18 years old.

Before Expunge.io, people had to wade through a 25-page document with technical language to figure out if they qualified for expungement. By contrast, the app asks a few questions and connects the person with free legal aid.

To read the entire article written by J.B. Wogan, please click here