CORI foes continue their fight for Mass. legal reforms

Yawu Miller

More than 600 activists from across Massachusetts rallied at the State House last week, urging lawmakers to reform the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system.

Many of the activists — among them ex-offenders and their families, clergy, lawyers and civil rights advocates — crowded the halls of the State House while others testified in a hearing room jammed beyond its 100-person capacity.

The overwhelming majority of those who testified spoke in favor of reforming CORI laws, as did the activists and lawmakers who gathered in front of the State House for a rally.

“We’re going to march,” said Boston Workers Alliance (BWA) organizer Maggie Brown during the rally. “We’re going to demonstrate. We’re going to do whatever we have to do to make them feel the pain we’re feeling in our community.”

The state’s CORI laws were created to give law enforcement officials and prospective employers access to information about ex-offenders. Opponents of the law argue that it goes too far, listing not only convictions, but also arrests and charges that do not result in convictions.

Misdemeanors and charges that are dropped appear on CORI records and remain there indefinitely, leaving an arrest record that makes it more difficult for ex-offenders to obtain even menial jobs.

Ex-prisoners must now wait 10 to 15 years before they are eligible to seal a record for a felony. The proposed reform legislation would reduce the waiting period to seal a CORI to three years for a misdemeanor and seven years for a felony.

The legislation would also provide anti-discrimination protections by allowing employers to check a CORI only after they have shown interest in hiring the applicant, removing non-conviction, not guilty and dismissed cases from CORI records, and allowing juveniles to have their CORIs purged by a judge.

CORI reform advocates last year made a similar push with rallies, marches and lobbying at the State House. The Public Safety Act of 2006 cleared the Senate before House Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Eugene O’Flaherty referred the bill to a study commission made up mostly of law enforcement personnel.

That move effectively killed the legislation. The commission never met, and the legislation died in the House.

This year, the same coalition of CORI reform activists have joined in the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI (MARC) — including the BWA, Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts, Ex-Prisoners Organized for Community Action, and the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition.

Others who turned out last week to testify on behalf of CORI reform included Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral.

The reform advocates expressed disappointment when Suzanne Bump, secretary of labor and workforce development under Gov. Deval Patrick, called for the creation of a study commission to look at CORI reforms.

“This has been studied enough,” said Horace Small, executive director of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods and a founder of MARC.

“We are in dialogue with the governor,” he said. “We’re not trying to be disrespectful, but we have to deal with the governor like we deal with anyone else.”

Small said activists are banking on the reform legislation passing this year.

“We know we have a very short window in which to work,” he said. “In 2008, when there’s a presidential election, nobody’s going to want to deal with this.”