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."

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