Council: City contractors must hire applicants with CORIs

Yawu Miller

The City Council last week passed an ordinance barring companies that contract with the city from refusing to hire job applicants with criminal records.

The ordinance, aimed at aiding city residents with arrest records made public under the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information law, passed unanimously.

Under the law, companies would be banned from obtaining contracts with the city if they used criminal records to bar job applicants, unless the criminal conviction could pose a threat to the company or its clients.

The passage of the ordinance gave CORI reform supporters their greatest victory yet in their efforts to remove bars to employment for people with arrest records.

“This represents a major crack in the wall for Boston residents with CORI issues,” said Lisa Thurau Gray, director of the Suffolk University Law School’s Juvenile Justice Center. “I hope the far-sightedness of the Boston City Council will inspire the legislature to support CORI reform for juveniles and adults.”

The council’s vote comes as the Legislature is considering more than 50 bills aimed at reforming the state’s CORI laws.

When it was passed in 1972, the CORI law was devised to place controls on the accuracy and completeness of criminal records. But as computerized record systems have become more readily accessible in recent years, CORI records have become a major impediment to those seeking employment.

Currently employers can access information not only on convictions, but also on arrests, whether or not they resulted in a conviction. Many companies routinely reject job applicants who have CORI records, regardless of the nature of the record.

While the City Council cannot enact changes to the CORI law, the ordinance voted on last week gives the city the leverage to help change company policies.

“This legislation is not a cure-all, but it sends a very clear message — we are not going to assign people to permanent second-class citizenship in this city,” said City Councilor Charles Yancey, during last week’s council meeting.

The measure passed with unanimous support, although Councilor James Kelly, who represents South Boston, Chinatown and part of the South End, expressed reservations, telling the council they were rushing to judgment.

“I’ll go along with it,” he said. “But it’s not good practice for this body to be going along with this just to be good guys a few weeks before the election.”

Few of the councilors were likely to oppose CORI reform in an election year when voters of color are seen as crucial to victory. But, as Council President Michael Flaherty pointed out, the issue goes beyond color.

“There’s not a person in this room who does not know someone who has had a youthful indiscretion,” he said. “People deserve a second chance.”

According to Councilor Chuck Turner, who sponsored the measure, the initiative also demonstrates the ability of the council to legislate social change. Turner likened the measure to the anti-apartheid resolutions that the council passed in the 1980s barring the city from doing business with companies that were invested in South Africa’s apartheid regime.

Among the reforms currently being reviewed in the state Legislature are provisions that would automatically seal non-violent offenses after a period of years and procedures to allow people to challenge inaccuracies in their record or to clear from their record charges that did not result in convictions.

Thurau Gray said last week’s council vote was a major step forward in reforming the system.

“Without this necessary reform, Massachusetts marginalizes too many people and does not enhance public safety,” she said.