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Recovery in the News
Scrutiny of criminals heats up race
Andrea Estes
The Boston Globe
September 24, 2006
When criminals try to re enter society and remake their lives, they're often haunted by criminal background information that can prevent them from getting a job. For years, state lawmakers and social activists, many of them from minority neighborhoods, have tried to limit distribution of that information, saying they want to help people get another chance.
The fight to water down the Criminal Offender Records Information law, or CORI, has emerged as an issue in the governor's race. Democrat Deval L. Patrick, who supports restricting the release of some information, is drawing fire -- first from his defeated Democratic rival, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, and now from his Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.
Healey last week launched a television ad quoting Reilly calling Patrick "soft on crime."
"There is no benefit to hiding someone's criminal history," Healey said in an interview. "It should be made more widely available, not restricted, as Deval Patrick has suggested. I think it's meaningful that the state's top law enforcement official called Patrick soft on crime."
A review of his public comments by the Globe found that Patrick has carefully avoided taking a stand on specific CORI legislation, including the most controversial proposals pending on Beacon Hill. The Public Safety Act of 2006, an omnibus bill that lawmakers did not act on this session, contained measures that would make it easier for offenders to have their records sealed or expunged and allow drug dealers to lop time off their sentences.
For five months, Patrick was listed as a supporter of that bill on the website of one of the groups pressing the legislation, the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI. After Reilly criticized Patrick, a leader of that group removed Patrick's name from the website, saying it was a mistake to list him as a proponent.
Currently, more than 11,000 employers have access to criminal records under CORI, and nearly all of them serve vulnerable populations such as nursing home residents and schoolchildren.
In debates and in speeches, Patrick has said he supports the idea of giving people with criminal records "a second chance."
"Moving from jail back into responsible society is a great idea," he said in a June speech, "but only if CORI doesn't defeat your second chance." In an interview Friday, Patrick said he believes in "tightening up" the current criminal background system, which he said is "overbroad" and "inaccurate," and may prevent convicted criminals from making a clean start.
"All I'm talking about is creating a way for those who need information that is relevant . . . to have that information," Patrick said in an interview Friday. "But also make sure that CORI doesn't defeat their every second chance."
But he said in the interview he isn't sure which specific bills he would support. "I don't pretend to know all the different legislation. I can't say there's any one proposal that is right," he said.
Patrick's statements on the hot button issue reignite questions that surfaced privately among strategists for his Democratic rivals during the primary campaign: that he is often vague and elusive on key public policy matters. He won the primary with 50 percent of the vote, but last week the general election campaign quickly turned heated over crime and immigration, and Healey renewed a familiar criticism in an interview last week.
"It's typical of Deval Patrick to speak in generalities and be unable to supply specific plans for making Massachusetts a better place to live," she said. "I have very specific plans about what we need to do to make Massachusetts safer. Criminal justice is the most basic service that government provides. You can't have economic development without safe streets. Your kids can't learn in school if they're scared."
In the Democratic candidates' final debate Sept. 14, Reilly attacked Patrick for seeming to endorse the Public Safety Act of 2006, a compilation of a half dozen bills filed by different legislators during the year. Patrick denied supporting the act, and afterward , Patrick's name was removed from the website where he was listed as a backer. Horace Small, a leader of the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI, said Patrick's name should not have been included.
"It was an honest mistake," Small said.
On Friday, Patrick said again that he does not support that legislation. He said he believes in protecting people by limiting access by employers to incorrect or irrelevant information.
"I don't think every employer ought to know about every trivial infraction," he said. ``For example, if you were a bank, you'd want to know that an applicant for teller had a history of financial fraud, but not necessarily about every speeding ticket."
He stressed that law enforcement authorities should have unfettered access to criminal records.
He said he cannot decide which measures to support without further study. "The way to get CORI reform is to get people around the table who have to live with this, who need or don't need information, and try to forge a course that serves the best interests of everyone," he said.
Groups pressing for changes say they don't care if Patrick embraces their favorite CORI reform proposal, as long as he agrees with them in concept.
"Deval supports the idea of a second chance," said Small. "He recognizes that the way the system was set up hurts people. What I loved about the guy is he took the time to meet with people with CORI's. He heard their stories. He studied the laws. He said the system was falling apart. Whether he embraced our piece, he's committed to making the system fair and efficient; giving access to public safety but making sure people don't pay for the rest of their lives."
They say that supporting Patrick is easy; his main opponent, Healey, opposes any form of CORI reform.
As an advocate who has investigated the positions of the various candidates, I think [Patrick] believes the system needs to be worked on to allow appropriate employment," said Brandyn Keating, executive director of the non-profit Criminal Justice Policy Coalition. "Ideologically the candidates [Patrick and Healey] are on opposite sides of the issue. It's not like they each support some form of CORI reform. They're on opposite poles," said Keating, whose group does not get involved in electoral politics because of its nonprofit status.
But some prosecutors say there is no middle ground in the CORI debate -- a politician is either for providing access to criminal record information or is siding with criminals and making it tougher for law enforcement officials to do their job. The Massachusetts District Attorneys Association has gone on record opposing any efforts to weaken the existing law.
There are different versions that people have proposed," said Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz, a Republican. "My opinion is they raise public safety issues. I believe an employer should be able to make an informed decision whether to hire or not hire someone. People have the right to be safe."
To Cruz, the best CORI law would be no CORI law. He believes the Legislature should eliminate the law altogether and give the public complete access to criminal records over the Internet.
"That would be the reform safest for everyone," he said. "We don't start life at 35 with a clean slate. People make choices and actions have consequences. I don't think that because people allegedly can't get a job that we should try to change history."
As the campaign progresses, Patrick said, he may take a more specific stand on CORI reform, but for now isn't afraid to take the "reasoned" middle ground -- even if he risks being labeled "soft on crime.
"Kerry Healey will be using every label, every shorthand, doing everything short of engaging thoughtfully on the issue," he said. "We owe the people of Massachusetts thoughtful, engaged discussion of the issues, not just government by sound bite."
Copyright © 2006 The New York Times Company