Reject Senate bill on CORI reform

Reject Senate bill on CORI reform
The Lowell Sun
02/24/2010
By Laurie Myers

It has been three years since Deval Patrick became the governor of Massachusetts, and one of the items that topped his agenda was "reforming" Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI). He claimed the existence of criminal records prevented criminals from obtaining jobs and housing, but those of us who are involved in supporting victims of violent crime argue that sealing criminal records at all would provide the secrecy that only perpetuates more crimes.
In 2008 and throughout his campaign, the governor announced that sex offender records would not be eligible for sealing. This was something we had hoped for and with which CORI activists agreed. The governor stayed true to his word during his first two years in office, but the bill died during the last legislative cycle. Along with it died the governor's word that he would not give a free pass to those convicted of crimes against the most vulnerable.

In the governor's second filing of his CORI reform bill, he decided to allow sex offenders who have been relieved of their obligation to register with the Sex Offender Registry to have their records sealed. What he failed to address is the loophole in our law that allows judges to waive the sex-offender registration requirement. According to Kevin Burke, former secretary of public safety and security, the change was the result of the governor wanting to be "fair."
Let's talk about what's fair.

Every court from the U.S. Supreme Court to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has agreed that the public has the right to know if a person convicted of a sex crime lives or works in their community, but the governor would rather err on the side of secrecy and create a new set of "privacy" rights to those who choose to commit a crime than honor the decisions handed down by the courts.

The CORI "reform" legislation goes even one step further and exempts the government and businesses from liability if a person hired under the new veil of secrecy commits a crime. "No employer or person relying on volunteers shall be liable for negligent hiring practices by reason of relying solely on criminal offender record information received from the department and not performing additional criminal history background checks."

So who suffers? You! And it gets better. If this law passes and you happen to be lucky enough to obtain criminal information and decide to not hire someone based on what you've learned, you could be brought before "the commissioner" or his designee whose new job it will be to "investigate" complaints pertaining to misuse of the public safety information and issue sanctions and penalties for "misuse," including fines up to $5,000 for each violation." The new commissioner would also have the power to forward information for criminal prosecution if he interpreted its use to "cause a reasonable person to suffer emotional distress" and if found guilty, the person "shall be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisoned in a jail or house of correction for not more than one year, or both."

This new law would create a new group of criminals in Massachusetts -- the law abiding -- along with the final stage of moral bankruptcy, an all new low for even the state of Massachusetts.
This bill passed the Massachusetts Senate in November, currently awaits action by the House of Representatives and is close to becoming law. We all agree that people deserve second chances, but at what cost? More than 20 other states make all criminal conviction information public and CORI, as it stands now, limits the public's access to criminal information. We should eliminate CORI all together and dedicate the resources to making sure all information is correct. If a citizen makes a request for criminal information it should be accurate and up to date, not hidden because the governor thinks he knows what's best.

Sorry, governor, ignorance is not bliss, and the way to stop the pattern of abuse is not to wave a magic wand and make the records disappear. Just ask the family members of the victims of Amy Bishop. Contact your legislators and let them know that S2220 is misguided and should not be acted on.

Laurie Myers is the president of Community VOICES, a victims' rights organization, a former rape crisis counselor and a resident of Chelmsford.

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