Systems and methods for cleaning protective sleeves in UV decontamination systems are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system for decontaminating contaminated media includes a translucent sleeve surrounding a light source, and a housing configured to receive the sleeve. A distance between an outer surface of the sleeve and an inner surface of the housing defines an annulus for flowing a contaminated fluid. The system also includes a pump for flowing the contaminated fluid through the annulus. In addition, the system in such embodiments may include a honing material in the contaminated fluid, where the flowing of the honing material against the outer surface of the sleeve removes debris aggregated on the outer surface of the translucent sleeve.