People arrested or convicted of crimes in California could have their criminal records automatically cleared under a proposed law announced Thursday by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and Assemblyman Phil Ting.

AB1076 would wipe out eligible convictions for people who have completed local sentences and eliminate many arrest records that have not resulted in convictions. Offenders already are eligible to petition the courts for the relief, but less then 20 percent take advantage of the program, said Ting, D-San Francisco.

Under the law, people convicted of offenses ranging from petty theft to more serious felonies that resulted in jail sentences — such as robbery or assault — could begin putting their criminal pasts behind them.

The groundbreaking clean-slate initiative would keep background-check agencies from accessing and disseminating cleared criminal records to employers and licensing boards. However, it would not remove the records from law enforcement databases.

“This is what government should be doing: making it easier for people to get what they deserve,” Ting said.

Nearly 8 million Californians have criminal convictions on their records and remain hamstrung by poor decisions of their past.

Seventy-six percent of residents with even low-level criminal records have more trouble finding housing, getting employment and access to education, according to a recent report by Oakland-based criminal-justice reform nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice, which is co-sponsoring AB1076. The limitations make people more likely to re-offend and get pulled back into the criminal justice system, the report found.

There has been a national push to limit when employers can ask applicants about their criminal backgrounds as reform groups have recognized the barriers that come with a person’s criminal history.

More than 150 cities and counties in 33 states have laws barring employers from asking to a see a job applicant’s criminal background, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Under AB1076, arrests and convictions will continue to appear on criminal rap sheets, and felons would still be prohibited from possessing firearms. Registered sex offenders and sentences served in state prison would not be eligible for automatic clearance.

“When we’re talking about clearance, it really impacts the ability for the general public to get this information — landlords, employers, schools,” Gascón said. “It still allows law enforcement to have this information in case they re-offend.”

The current system of petitioning the courts to have an eligible criminal record cleared is notoriously costly and time consuming. A person needs to hire a lawyer and set aside time to show up for court and file the necessary paperwork.

Gascón pointed to his office’s work in clearing every marijuana conviction off the books in San Francisco following the passage of Prop. 64, which legalized recreational cannabis in California. The partnership with Code for America, which created an algorithm to identify eligible cases, wiped out records en masse and provides a road map for how an automated system could work on the state level, Gascón said.

“This is about modernizing the criminal justice system,” he said. “It provides for a more just outcome for more people. It’s about removing the paper cages from people who continue to carry the burden on their criminal record that keeps them from so many things.”

One person hoping to get relief from the proposed bill is Jay Jordan, who served separate stints for robbery and vehicle theft and is now a project director with Californians for Safety and Justice.

When he got out in 2012, he wanted to start a family and begin a career, but as he worked to accomplish the most basic goals of re-entering society — like getting a job and housing — he found his criminal past was still very much present. When his infant son eventually goes to school, Jordan, 33, said, he won’t be able to volunteer or chaperone on field trips.

“I committed my crime. I paid for that,” Jordan said. “I was automatically charged, automatically convicted, automatically sent to prison, and automatically released on parole. Now when it comes time for me to get my full citizenship back, why doesn’t that happen automatically?”

Under AB1076, Jordan’s vehicle theft conviction would be eligible for automatic clearance, but not his robbery conviction, for which he served prison time.

The proposed law would be the latest criminal justice reform effort in California as many progressive lawmakers work to transition away from tough-on-crime policies that critics say lead to mass incarceration and increased recidivism.

Gascón co-sponsored Proposition 47 in 2014, which reduced many drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and raised the threshold for felony theft to $950. Prop. 47 has been criticized by law enforcement groups around the state, which have blamed the law for increasing property crimes in some California cities.

But state prison populations have decreased since the law and other progressive reforms — like AB109, more commonly known as realignment — went into effect. Violent crime rates at the same time have neared a 50-year low in California in recent years.

Gascón said efforts to rethink the state’s criminal justice system have led to a decrease in crime around the state by giving offenders more opportunities to re-enter society.

“The district attorney is the chief law enforcement officer in every county, and it cannot be a one-dimensional job,” Gascón said. “It’s not just about prosecuting people, it’s also about providing people the opportunity to be productive members of society.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky