Gov's commission on CORI reform seeks to file bill by year's end

GOV'S COMMISSION ON CORI REFORM SEEKS TO FILE BILL BY YEAR'S END

A commission established by Gov. Deval Patrick to reform Criminal Offender Registry Information laws, which enable employers to review criminal backgrounds of prospective workers, will be filed by year's end, a senior Patrick administration official said today.

Undersecretary for Criminal Justice Mary Beth Heffernan said the commission, which includes the co-chairs of the Legislature's Judiciary, Public Safety, and Labor and Workforce Development Committees, has been meeting since September, when leading administration officials announced its establishment during a public hearing. Heffernan said the commission would hold a public hearing, probably in Gardner Auditorium, during the first week in November. She said commission members were looking at "all of the elements" raised in a Boston Foundation report released earlier this year and the Public Safety Act, filed by various legislators earlier this year.

The Boston Foundation report recommends that the Criminal History Systems Board, which administers CORI reports, be broadened to be more sensitive to reentry concerns and to more quickly and accurately update individual reports.

It also encourages the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to require employers to more closely review employees' criminal records rather than simply ruling them out because of a prior criminal history. "It's a very complex issue that requires a lot of money, some administrative fixes and some legislation," Heffernan said. She added that the governor had met with the Senate president and House speaker on the issue. Judiciary Committee co-chair Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty (D-Chelsea), who is on the CORI commission, called the end-of-year timetable "ambitious," but added that meetings were "going well." He declined to elaborate, saying meetings were held "in a private setting" to encourage "free-wheeling discussion."

Statehouse News

GOVERNOR PATRICK ON CORI

Posted Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Source

The Governor has promised CORI Reform by Christmas. It’s time to hold him to his word.
Call the Governor’s Office (617) 725-4005 or email his office through his contact page below:

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us

Ask the Governor to sign an Executive Order on CORI that would:
(1) remove the list of crimes that prevent people from working in Health and Human Services;(2) stop sending out CORI felonies that are older than 7 years, and misdemeanors that are older than 3 years;(3) give “anti-discrimination” protections to job seekers with CORI.
Ask the Governor to sign the Executive Order before Christmas, and to support the Public Safety Act in 2008. Remind the Governor that he campaigned on CORI reform, and that we will not be betrayed.
Governor Patrick:Santa or Scrooge?Naughty or Nice?Together We Can?
CORI Reform Now! http://www.bostonworkersalliance.org/

—————

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Department
State House Boston 02133
(617) 727-3600
By His Excellency
Deval Patrick
Governor
Executive Order No. _____
Establishing Policies For the Reintegration
of Persons with Criminal Histories

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth maintains over 2.8 million criminal records, which are difficult to read, and many of which contain inaccuracies, but are, nonetheless, routinely disseminated to non-criminal justice agencies;

WHEREAS, the number of non-criminal justice agencies requesting criminal record information has grown exponentially over the last decade such that in 2006 alone, 1.4 million requests were processed, and the extent of the information received by these agencies also has expanded substantially;

WHEREAS, thousands of people processed through the criminal justice system, including those found not guilty or whose charges were not prosecuted, are unable, due to the dissemination of their records, to secure employment, job training or otherwise lead productive, taxpaying and law-abiding lives;

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth has a compelling interest in reducing its recidivism rate of 43 percent and its unemployment rate of 4.4 percent;

WHEREAS, the criminal justice system heavily impacts minority communities resulting in higher joblessness and unemployment rates that in turn exacerbate poverty (ranging from 6 to 52 percent in Boston) and reinforce cycles of criminal system involvement;

WHEREAS, the Governor’s Taskforce on CORI Reform determined that there is widespread agreement among various stakeholders, including employers, Bar Associations and social service providers, to diminish barriers impeding successful reintegration of persons with criminal histories into mainstream living;

NOW THEREFORE, I, Deval Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Supreme Executive Magistrate, and Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, do hereby order as follows:

Section 1. Declaration of Policy. It is the policy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to promote the full participation of law-abiding residents, who have criminal offender record information (CORI), in the labor market and in other spheres of mainstream living.
Section 2. Directives to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, (EOLWD) shall establish a policy that requires employers in the public sector, as well as those in the private sector contracting with the state, to review their employment policies and practices to ensure that they are not unduly restrictive or unreasonably exclude qualified persons with criminal histories.
The EOLWD shall make certain that the employer policies and practices are consistent with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination regulations proposed herein and with the Criminal History Systems Board’s regulation, 803 CMR 6.11.

The EOLWD shall work with employers in the private sector to ensure that their policies and practices are not unduly restrictive or unreasonably exclude qualified persons with criminal histories, and that the policies and practices are consistent with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination regulations proposed herein and with the Criminal History Systems Board’s regulation, 803 CMR 6.11.

The EOLWD shall propose tax and other incentives, and seek appropriations as necessary, to encourage employers in the private sector to hire and retain qualified persons with criminal histories.

The EOLWLD shall afford funding to Workforce Development Centers and other such employment training programs to enable them to provide comprehensive targeted job assistance resulting in stable, living wage employment for persons with criminal histories.
Section 3. Directives to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, (MCAD) shall adopt regulations that prohibit an employer from rejecting or discharging a qualified person with a criminal record because of the mere existence of the record.

The MCAD shall adopt regulations that prohibit the use of an erroneously issued CORI in making a hiring, promotion or firing decision.

The MCAD shall adopt regulations that require an employer making an adverse decision based on a CORI to insure that one or more convictions on the report substantially relate to a position to be filled and that the decision is objectively reasonable under all the circumstances. The MCAD regulations also shall adopt the standards set forth at the Criminal History Systems Board regulation, 803 CMR 6.11, and require that employers follow the standards.
The MCAD shall adopt regulations that afford any aggrieved person with a CORI the right to avail him or herself of the agency’s complaint mechanism.

The MCAD, under its plenary powers to combat discrimination, shall ensure, through periodic investigation and monitoring, that criminal histories are not been used as proxy for unlawful race or national origin discrimination.

Section 4. Directives to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
The Executive Office of Health and Human Services, (EOHHS) shall modify its CORI Regulations at 101 CMR 15.10 to eliminate the “Lifetime Presumptive Disqualification” provision.

The EOHHS shall rescind its CORI Regulations at 101 CMR 15.16, and, in its place, adopt regulations that require a hiring authority inclined to make an adverse decision based on a CORI to insure that one or more convictions on the report substantially relate to a position to be filled and that the decision is objectively reasonable under all the circumstances, including a review of the factors enumerated at 101 CMR 15.11.

The EOHHS shall adopt regulations that limit the consideration of CORI for any position that entails potential unsupervised contact with vulnerable clients in EOHHS funded or operated programs to: a) any felony conviction as to which the final disposition of the charge within the criminal justice system occurred seven or more years before the CORI report is sent out, and b) any misdemeanor for which said final disposition occurred three or more years before the CORI report is sent out.

The EOHHS shall adopt regulations that afford an aggrieved person an opportunity to have a CORI related adverse decision made by any hiring authority to be reviewed by EOHHS.
The EOHHS shall adopt regulations that make clear that all job training and housing search programs funded or operated by EOHHS must follow its CORI Regulations.
Section 5. Directives to the Criminal History Systems Board.

The Criminal History Systems Board, (CHSB) shall adopt regulations that set forth a step-by-step procedure for correcting inaccuracy on a record, particularly when an individual states that one or more charges attributed to him or her pertain to another individual. Such procedure should include a standard form to be completed and filed with the probation department of the court where the erroneous charge originated or with the Office of the Commissioner of Probation; filing of the same form with the CHSB, within seven days, in the event that the probation department fails to investigate and make appropriate correction; and the CHSB’s obligation, within seven days of receipt of the form, to ensure that the record is appropriately corrected or modified.

The CHSB shall adopt regulations that establish its mechanism for assuring that CORI disseminated to all non-criminal justice agencies are accurate and pertain to the individual for whom a request has been made. Such mechanism should include utilizing a fingerprint based system, and the CHSB shall take all necessary fiscal and technological steps to complete this transition in a timely manner.

The CHSB shall ensure that CORI reports are user-friendly for non-criminal justice agencies by adopting a standard plain English text format for data entered on a CORI.
The CHSB shall modify its regulations at 803 CMR 6.01 to notify an individual that upon arraignment for any crime punishable by incarceration in the Commonwealth, such a person has a CORI.

The CHSB shall modify its regulations at 803 CMR 5.01 and 5.03, to make clear that housing agencies’ access to CORI, pursuant to G.L. ch. 6, § 168, is limited to conviction and open cases.
The CHSB shall adopt regulations limiting the dissemination of CORI to conviction and open cases for all non-criminal justice agencies, except those statutorily granted access to “all available CORI.”

The CHSB shall limit CORI disseminated to all non-criminal justice agencies, organizations or persons to: a) any felony conviction as to which the final disposition of the charge within the criminal justice system occurred seven or more years before the CORI report is sent out, and b) any misdemeanor for which said final disposition occurred three or more years before the CORI report is sent out.

The CHSB shall modify its regulations at 803 CMR 6.11 to impose an appropriate fine, or revocation of access, on any entity failing to abide by the terms of the regulation.

The CHSB shall modify its regulations to make clear that the provisions of 803 CMR 3.05, 6.07 and 6.11, apply to all non-criminal justice agencies.

The CHSB shall be responsible for insuring the collection of accurate CORI demographic information, including race and ethnicity data.

Section 6. Directives to All Other Administrative Agencies.

All other administrative agencies are directed to review their employment policies and practices, and licensing laws, to ensure that they do not impose automatic bars or unduly exclude otherwise qualified persons with CORI; that they afford such persons with an opportunity, consistent with 803 CMR 6.11, to contest the relevance and accuracy of the record; and that they are in conformity with the MCAD regulations relative to persons with criminal histories.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston
this 1st day of January in the year of our
Lord two thousand and eight.
____________________________________
Deval Patrick
Governor
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

News: Criminal records law assailed

Cape Cod Times
By Hilary Russ
STAFF WRITER
November 09, 2007


BOSTON — With deeply personal stories, two Cape mothers testified on Beacon Hill this week hoping to change state laws that cover access to criminal records.

Dr. Maryanne Bombaugh and Heidi Scott-Reynolds, both of Falmouth, told a smattering of state senators and representatives, and the state's secretary of public safety, Kevin Burke, about their sons. The two young men — Keith Bombaugh and Jarrod Scott-Reynolds, both 18 — were arrested and charged with aggravated rape in May after a female classmate at Falmouth High School said the pair had a sexual encounter with her in the woods against her will.

But after the young men were hauled into court — their pictures printed in the paper — several informants told police that the girl had bragged about the encounter and had consented to sex, according to police reports. The girl recanted, and charges against both boys were dropped, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe confirmed.

Scott-Reynolds' son was not allowed to attend his last two weeks of high school or to graduate with his class. She's afraid that unless she can get the charges against him expunged — completely wiped out of the court system — the false accusations will haunt him.

"My son's life will be continually barricaded with suspicion and speculation," Scott-Reynolds said at the Statehouse. If an employer, for example, asked for a check of her son's Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, it would show that a charge of assault and battery (the rape charge was reduced to that offense) was dismissed. Yet even the mere mention of the arrest could be enough for a potential employer to chose a different candidate.

When the case began, Bombaugh's son had been drafted into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 2006. But this season, he's playing for a different Canadian league. News of his arrest made its way into hockey publications.

"Can I tell you for sure (the case) is the reason he left one league and went to another? Did it affect his future in hockey? It could have," his mother, an ob/gyn in Plymouth, told the Times. Both mothers want to clear their sons' names.

The Beacon Hill hearings are part of ongoing efforts, and Gov. Deval Patrick's campaign promise, to reform the state's system for checking criminal backgrounds. Several proposals are before the Legislature now, and plenty of parties — employers, schools, citizens — have a stake in their outcome. Employers want details about job applicants' criminal pasts. But others have argued that CORI access is broad and limits low-level ex-offenders from finding jobs after release from jail.

And Bombaugh appealed to legislators, "Please allow cases where defendants are not guilty of criminal charges to be expunged."

Hilary Russ can be reached at hruss@capecodonline.com .

Fact Sheet: Discrimination on the Basis of Criminal Record

Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 15l B, Section 4; 804 CMR 3.01

It is illegal for an employer to ask certain questions about a job applicant's or employee's criminal record. Employers may not ask about, maintain a record of, or base any employment decision on the following information if they have requested it:
Arrests or prosecution that did not lead to a conviction;
A first conviction for drunkenness, simple assault, speeding, minor traffic violations, affray, or disturbance of the peace;

Misdemeanors where the date of conviction or the end of any period of incarceration was more than five years ago, provided that there have been no subsequent convictions within those five years;

Any record of a court appearance which has been sealed under state law;
Anything pertaining to juvenile record, including delinquency and child in need of services complaints, unless the juvenile was tried as an adult in Superior Court.
An employer may not take action against an applicant or employee for answering an unlawful question untruthfully.

An employer may ask:
Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
Within the last five years have you been convicted of, or released from incarceration for a misdemeanor which was not a first offense for drunkenness, simple assault, speeding, a minor traffic violation, an affray, or disturbing the peace?

IT IS ALSO ILLEGAL FOR AN EMPLOYER TO REQUEST FROM AN APPLICANT OR EMPLOYEE A COPY OF A PROBATION OR ARREST RECORD,* OR TO ASK AN APPLICANT OR EMPLOYEE TO SIGN A RELEASE PERMITTING ACCESS TO SUCH INFORMATION.

* An employer that applies for and is granted access to criminal record information by the Massachusetts Criminal History Systems Board under the Criminal Record Information Act (CORI) may obtain some information on applicants'/employees' criminal records. Access to information under CORI is limited to that which is necessary to perform the relevant criminal justice or statutory duties.

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