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Research Brief |
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Community Work
Services: Michael Forcier, Ph.D. March,
2004
Community Work
Services: Cynthia Dean, Ph.D.
Transitioning
from Chronic Homelessness to Employment:
Impact of a
Positive CORI Report
A Story…
“I had only been on the job for 2 weeks when I was told Human
Resources wanted to see me. I
knew what it was…I had just gotten
this job in the hospital and I figured they had pulled a CORI on me.
I was dead meat, they would let me go.
I liked the job, though, and
I figured “What do I have to lose.”
Sure enough, the HR person
told me they had to let me go ‘cause of the CORI. Great.
But I
sucked it up and I guess I convinced them, ‘cause they let me stay.
My buddies couldn’t believe it, ‘cause they all had
lost their jobs
from having a
CORI…”
Our Story….
When Project Independence started at Community Work Services in 1997, it
rapidly became clear that having a past history with the law presented a
formidable barrier when seeking housing or employment for people who were
chronically homeless. We found that:
·
Of the more than 786 clients served since its
inception, approximately 70% have had a positive CORI record.
·
Almost without exception, the criminal record
was established while the individual was actively abusing substances. This
situation is understandable because the need of the addict to use mood-altering
substances leads into many forms of criminal and anti-social behavior.
·
The convictions generally ranged from possession
and distribution of classified substances, to assault and battery, breaking and
entering, shoplifting, forgery, and loitering, to name the most common.
·
The converse was also true. During the period of
sobriety and recovery, there were typically no further instances of felony
or misdemeanor charges reported. Project Independence clients came to the
program with and without histories of incarceration, and with cases that were
closed or open.
·
The periods of incarceration ranged from up to
20 years to only a few months. Some
individuals seeking employment and training were still under the supervision of
Probation or Parole officers when they were referred for employment and housing
services.
CORI has become a major issue for CWS staff and
people who are homeless and attempting to transition from chronic homelessness
to competitive work and productivity.
The expansion of the number of
employers across all industries who are able to gain access to an individual’s
CORI record is a serious roadblock to individuals who are newly attempting to
become tax-paying and productive members of society after many years of being a
burden on it. Employers rarely have the
time or knowledge to interpret CORI reports accurately and, as a result, come
away with negative impressions. The Criminal History Systems Board (CHSB) also
maintains a Web site - http://www.state.ma.us/chsb - where, for the payment of a fee, individuals
are all too easily able to obtain information and download forms requesting
access to CORI.
An example of what is seen every day is the case of
a 25-year old
young man who applied to work in a hotel as a cook
and whose
experience and references were of such quality that
he was offered
immediate employment. When it came time to
interview, he was
honest about a drug charge within the previous 2
years and an
assault charge 8 years previously. The hiring
manager
immediately changed his mind about his offer to
hire, saying that
he did not meet their profile.
The CORI Story…
But
how did the CORI process start and what was the intention of the program?
The
Criminal Offender Record Information, more popularly known by its acronym
“CORI,” was enacted during a period of sweeping criminal justice reform in
CORI came
about in the early 1970s because of the availability of federal money and, as
enacted, had two purposes: (1) to make
the criminal justice system more efficient by putting criminal records
“on-line,” so that they would instantly be available to police, prosecutors,
probation officers, judges, and other functionaries; and, (2) to safeguard the
privacy of CORI subjects, so that potentially embarrassing and damaging
information about them would only get into the hands of people with a clear need to know the information. In the last 30 years, however, the use of
CORI has expanded and changed dramatically.
In the words of Dr. Daniel P. LeClair, former DOC Director of Research
and member of the state Security and Privacy Council: “CORI has been turned inside out . . . it was
originally designed to protect the privacy rights of ex-offenders but is now
often used against them when they apply for employment or housing.”[2]
Ernest Winsor, Director of the
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, agrees when he says: “. . . the law enforcement efficiency purpose
has persisted and been morphed, it sometimes seems, into unthinking
tough-on-crime-ism; but the privacy purpose has been increasingly restricted,
by statutory changes, regulations, actions, and policies of the executive
branch and discretionary decision-making of the CHSB.”[3]
CORI Expansion…
There is no doubt that the number
of requests for access to CORI, and the number of requesters being certified,
has skyrocketed over the years. Whereas
certification was once reluctantly granted by the CHSB, it is now more the norm
with over 9,000 organizations and individuals certified for access to CORI.
While we can probably all agree that we do not want sex offenders driving
school buses or operating day care centers, other areas are less clear.
Clearly, there are vulnerable populations who need
to be protected. For example, should a
nuclear power plant be able to obtain CORI on contract employees who stock
vending machines in its cafeteria? One
CHSB staff person noted that, when he started working there in 1993, there were
about 12,000 CORI requests per month.
Today, they average about 80,000 to 90,000 requests per month, over a
million a year. It would indeed appear
that CORI has been turned “inside out” as the privacy rights of offenders have
taken a lower priority than the public’s “need-to-know.”
Organizations that are required or
mandated to see CORI include a broad class of governmental and private social
service agencies. They are not only
given access to CORI, but must also do a CORI check before hiring, or taking on
a volunteer, anyone who “will have any direct or indirect contact” with a
client who is elderly (60 or older), a child, or a person who is disabled so as
to be wholly or partially dependent on others to meet daily living needs.
A distinction is also made between
those allowed to see CORI versus
those organizations that are required
to see CORI. Those allowed to seek CORI
access include: criminal justice
agencies. Other agencies & individuals
required to have access by other statutes (e.g., liquor control commissions);
anyone (organization or person) upon a showing that the public interest in
disclosure outweighs the CORI subject’s privacy interest in non-disclosure
(done by the CHSB on an individualized basis and typically only in cases ending
in convictions or which are still pending); specialized legislatively
authorized entities (mostly government agencies) such as public housing
authorities, long-term care facilities, Massachusetts Department of Social
Services and Youth Services, Office of Child Care Services, Massachusetts
Department of Revenue’s Child Support Enforcement Division; schools, camps, and
other child serving organizations; crime victims, victims’ family members or witnesses
to a crime; the CORI subject himself or herself; and, any member of the general
public, when the “CORI curtain is up.”[4]
Other
types of employers may ask an applicant about CORI, although they may not ask
certain questions. For example, they are
forbidden from asking about:
(1)
an arrest or proceeding where no conviction
resulted;
(2)
a first conviction for certain types of
misdemeanors such as disturbing the peace; and,
(3)
conviction of a misdemeanor where the date of
conviction, or the end of incarceration, whichever is later, occurred 5 or more
years (without intervening convictions) before the request.
If an employer asks about a sealed
criminal record, the job applicant may respond “no record.” Employers are also forbidden (like any power
holder with respect to the applicant) from “requesting or requiring” the CORI
subject to obtain and give his CORI to the power holder. Of course, these provisions are difficult to
enforce and some CORI subjects may not be aware of their rights. The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
suggests that the job applicant ask the employer to share the CORI report the
employer gets with the CORI subject in order to compare to the CORI report the
applicant may have gotten on him or herself.
This provides for an accuracy check and some level of due process for
the applicant.
There are serious problems,
however, in this area of disclosure on the part of a job applicant. Claiming
one’s “rights” in discussion about CORI or presenting a “sealed record”
generally creates such a poor impression that a decision to hire is avoided on
the part of the company concerned. The apparent ease with which an employer is
able to gain access to an applicant’s CORI record, moreover, also turns an
individual’s privacy protection under the CORI reporting law into a mockery.
Housing Stories…
The Project Independence clients
who have a positive CORI also have extraordinary difficulties in securing
public housing and housing subsidies. For example, in the public housing arena,
Public Housing Authorities have implemented “one strike and you’re out
regulations,” which may prohibit the admission of a household if any member
“has engaged in during a reasonable time before the admissions decision”
drug-related or violent criminal activity or criminal activity which would
threaten health, safety or peace of other residents, the Public Housing
Authority or its employees or contractors.[5]
In the
employment area, there are special CORI-related rules for subjects seeking a
state-funded health and human services job in programs operated or funded by
This broad directive had the
impact of disqualifying individuals from working in human services even when
based on the presumption that they were dangerous for certain arbitrary waiting
periods (i.e., 5 years, 10 years or forever).
Ernest Winsor, Director of the
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, has characterized CORI as easy access
information on the history of and whatever is applicable on each criminal
charge from the point of arrest, through court proceedings, probation,
incarceration, discharge, and parole. It
should be noted that any CORI report that the CHSB provides to a CORI-approved
requester, be it an organization or person, contains only court-generated
information. In short, there is nothing
in the database about arrests or when the person was released from jail or
prison or discharged from parole.
Individuals wanting that type of information must separately contact the
criminal justice agency which created it, such as the police, corrections, or
parole. For example, individuals wanting
access to the disciplinary history of a formerly incarcerated individual must
contact the Department of Corrections with such a request. There are no laws, however, which require
that those agencies supply such information to the requester.
Recommendations…
In conclusion, the CORI process
has become a means of actually increasing
chronic homelessness through an unexamined attitude towards persons
with a positive CORI who are making a sincere effort to rehabilitate themselves
and take their place once more in society through employment and securing
permanent housing.
A second Research Brief in this
project will examine needed reforms to make CORI reporting more equitable and
realistic to serve the purpose for which it was designed: protecting vulnerable
populations from those whose past actions may, but not necessarily, indicate
the possibility of a potential for abuse. This second Brief will also make recommendations as to how concerned and
educated citizens might assist these individuals to secure the employment and
housing that they so earnestly desire after a life of incarceration, living on
the streets and in the emergency shelter system of large cities and towns.
Part II
The next Research Brief in this study will make
recommendations for the future and outline Case Management strategies for
assisting individuals who are chronically homeless and have a positive CORI to
secure employment and housing.
Comments on this Research
Brief are encouraged.