With state legislators’ summer holiday fast approaching, advocates and lobbyists are working hard to get their pet bills out of the House and Senate and onto Gov. Deval Patrick’s desk by Saturday, which marks the end of the current legislative session.
To look at the news from the Statehouse, you’d think the poorly thought-out proposal to cram some casinos in Massachusetts was the only bill still left on the table. But other, urgent bills are also waiting for approval—including the long-awaited bill to reform the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, system, something Patrick has called a priority.
Among the proposed changes that advocates say would help ex-offenders successfully return to society after they’ve served their time: reducing the number of years convictions stay on a person’s record (felonies would be sealed after 10 years, not the current 15; misdemeanors would be sealed after 5 years, down from the current 10). The bill would also prevent employers from asking about past convictions during initial job interviews—an attempt to stop employers from eliminating potential hires on that basis alone—although it would allow them access to CORI records later in the employment process. And it would remove from a person’s record any charges that resulted in a not-guilty ruling.
In an emailed action alert, Lois Ahrens of Northampton’s Real Cost of Prison Project urged supporters to contact their legislators “and demand that they put pressure on the conference committee members to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the CORI Reform Bill and send it to the Governor to sign!!”
In addition, she urges them to contact House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Senate President Therese Murray, and members of the Senate/House Conference Committee. (Contact information for all Mass. Legislators can be found here.)
“After the many years of work finally, both the Massachusetts House & Senate have passed a CORI Reform bill,” Ahrens wrote. “Because of political maneuvering the process is stalled in conference committee. The deadline to get a final version of the CORI Reform bill to the Governor for signature is July 31st. … If this deadline is not met, the bill dies in committee and a new bill will have to be drafted next session and the process will begin all over again.”
Meanwhile, in Sunday’s Springfield Republican, reporter Buffy Spencer wrote about a battle between candidates for the Hampden County District Attorney’s job over CORI reform. State Sen. Stephen Buoniconti, who’s leaving the Senate to run for DA, voted against the reform bill—prompting criticism from fellow Democratic candidate Michael Kogut, who said Buoniconti’s “attempt to politically position himself as tough on crime with his ‘no’ vote was neither tough nor smart on crime.”
“This bi-partisan legislation is smart on crime and is long overdue. It protects public safety,” Kogut told the Republican. “It gives those who have served their time and turned their lives around a chance to become productive members of society, it ensures protection for victims and sets clear and cost-effective guidelines for employers.”
Buoniconti told the newspaper he supported proposed reforms “that would give individuals better access to employment,” but voted against the bill because he opposed a proposal that would allow people serving mandatory-minimum sentences on drug convictions to serve part of their time in work-release programs.
