For ex-offenders, CORI law not working
"Get them jobs," says activist Horace Small of ex-offenders, "and there will be
fewer crimes."

By Michael Jonas | September 30, 2007

At a time when residents of high-crime neighborhoods are on edge over the
plague of gang and gun violence, Mayor Thomas Menino ventured up to Beacon
Hill this month to lobby on behalf of the city's ne'er-do-wells. The mayor
was there to testify at a Judiciary Committee hearing in favor of a bill to
limit employer access to criminal records. While some might say Menino
should focus his energies on law-abiders, not lawbreakers, he is driven as
much by a concern for the former as the latter.

"There are young people who made a mistake," says Menino. "I don't believe
it should be a life sentence."

Reform advocates have complained that the state's Criminal Offender Record
Information law, or CORI, has become just that - preventing those convicted
of even minor offenses from being able to turn themselves around and find
honest work.

But Menino says the wide access to criminal record information does more
than just hold back ex-offenders. "It makes neighborhoods unsafe," says
Menino. "It's part of our public safety problem, as I see it."

That's because nearly everyone locked up by the criminal justice system is
eventually let out, some 250 inmates every month from the Suffolk House of
Correction alone. And the options open to them can have a big impact on
whether they end up back behind bars - and whether a law-abiding citizen
becomes a victim in the process.

CORI laws keep them from getting jobs and finding a place to live, says
Menino. "After a while, they get frustrated and get angry, and they turn to
the world they came from," he says.

Under the bill Menino supports, access to full CORI reports would be
available only to law enforcement agencies and employers that serve children
and other vulnerable populations. Other employers would have access to more
limited summaries, while all employers seeking information would have to
attend a training session on accurate reading of CORI reports, which are
notoriously difficult to decipher.

Horace Small, director of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods and a man not
unfamiliar with tossing an occasional grenade at politicians, has nothing
but praise for the mayor's willingness to push for changes in the CORI
system. "He gets this at the most basic level," says Small. "From a
practical level, from a public safety level: Get them jobs and there will be
fewer crimes."

That basic level involves regular encounters Menino has with young people,
sometimes in his City Hall office, but more often in the neighborhoods where
they live. At one such session recently in Dorchester's Uphams Corner,
Menino says the CORI issue came up repeatedly.

That plenty of young people not even out of their teens already have
criminal records is a depressing thought. That those records could be a
barrier to success for even those most determined to get on the right path
is an even more grim reality for ex-offenders. But it should be of equal
concern to those who share the same neighborhood with them.

"I see a real impact every day that we don't take action," says City
Councilor Steve Murphy, who cosponsored a 2005 Boston ordinance that lessens
the impact of CORI in city hiring.

Menino says a longtime friend of his with a produce business in Newmarket
Square makes it a point to hire young people with records, putting into
practice the maxim that the best social program is a job. "They're the best
workers he has," says Menino.

That may not always be the case, and there are plenty of jobs that even CORI
reform advocates acknowledge should be off-limits to those with records for
serious offenses. But there will also be a price paid if state lawmakers and
the Patrick administration don't figure out the right balance and fix a
system that many agree is not working.

*Michael Jonas can be reached at jonas@globe.com.*
(c) Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

-Taken from STATE CAPITOL BRIEFS – THURSDAY, SEPT. 27, 2007
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

John Blodgett, Essex County district attorney and head of the
Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, said there
was agreement with the governor on a need for Criminal Offender Registry
Information reform and revising rules on mandatory minimum sentencing. He
said the DAs would work with the administration on a high-level task force
assigned to develop recommendations for reforming **CORI**.

BBA News release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2007 Contact: Bonnie Sashin, APR
Communications Director
(617) 778-1902

Basic Principles Needed for CORI Reform
-Boston Bar Association

BOSTON – As the Massachusetts Legislature prepares to convene a hearing on
Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) reform legislation, the Boston
Bar Association today unveiled 12 basic principles covering four categories
that meaningful CORI reform demands: Accuracy, Access, Sealing, and
Juvenile Justice. The principles were developed by the BBA Study Group on
CORI Reform, chaired by employment attorney Jennifer Catlin Tucker.

"Successful re-entry is a critical component of preventing recidivism," said
BBA President Tony Doniger. "It is no secret that many employers find it
easier to hire someone without a smudge on his or her record than to deal
with trying to understand CORI," said BBA President Tony Doniger. "The
principles adopted by the BBA provide an important road map for those on all
sides of the issue. Where CORI is concerned, nothing is more dangerous than
inertia."

Boston Bar Association STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES ON CORI

1. *Accuracy*

- A system should be established to improve the accuracy of the CORI
that is maintained by the Criminal Systems History Board.
- Research should be conducted to determine whether it is advisable to
redesign and simplify the form and content of CORI reports in order to make
it easier for non-law enforcement personnel to understand them, and to craft
more usable guidelines on the subject.
- A process must be established that enables the correction of
erroneous CORI in a timely and effective manner.

2. *Access*

- The Legislature should consider adopting additional criteria with
respect to: (i) who may have access to CORI and under what circumstances;
(ii) the content of the CORI that should be released; and (iii) permissible
use of the CORI in the housing and employment contexts. In formulating
these criteria, the Legislature should consider whether to prohibit the
making of housing and employment decisions based solely on the fact of CORI
without regard to the content, timing, and relevance of the CORI.
- There should be no restriction of access to CORI by law enforcement
personnel.
- The Legislature should consider creating a system that enables
offenders to present prospective employers with documentation reflecting
their satisfactory completion of probation or rehabilitation requirements.
- Those who have access to CORI should also have access to training
that enables them to read and interpret CORI accurately.

3. *Sealing*

- The Legislature should consider developing criteria for sealing CORI
which more accurately reflects scientific research regarding recidivism
rates and which more precisely distinguishes between categories of offenses
which warrant the application of discrete sealing criteria.
- The Legislature should consider whether housing authorities and
employers should be precluded from denying housing or employment to an
individual based solely on the existence of sealed CORI.

4. *Juvenile Justice*

- The CORI system should be revised so that individuals who commit
criminal offenses while minors are not prevented from obtaining housing and
employment for years after they have completed any probation or other
sentencing requirements. The Legislature should consider whether purging or
expungement of juvenile records should be permitted under standards to be
applied by the courts (except that, records of criminal activity that caused
the individual to be designated as a youthful offender under M.G.L. c.
119, s. 52 would not be eligible for purging).
- Juveniles should be educated about their rights with respect to
their CORI records and potential inquiries of prospective employers and
housing authorities.
- If prospective employers and housing authorities are permitted to
have access to information reflecting an individual's juvenile CORI, they
must receive training on how to read and interpret it.