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Hearing on new EOHHS CORI regulations on Monday, December 22, 2008 at 9:30 A.M. On the 9th Floor of Saltonstall Building, 100 Cambridge St., Boston, MA.
The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) will be holding a hearing on new proposed regulation to govern the use of Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) in the hiring of employees by state agencies under EOHHS and vendors to EOHHS.
EOHHS and its vendors are majors employers in Massachusetts. These regulations are particularly well drafted. JudyAnn Bigby, the Secretary of EOHHS, deserves to be commended for proposing these regulations. EOHHS should be encouraged to adopt the proposed regulations in their current strong form. To see the full text of the proposed regulations including how they differ from the current regulations please click here. For a summary of the new proposed regs please click here. The only thing that CJPC can suggest to improve the proposed regulations would be shorten the time periods for which convictions for a major felony (Table A) and other offenses (Table B) (see pages 14-23 of the proposed regs) would be considered in making hiring decision from 10 and 5 years to 7 and 3 year respectively. This change is suggested because the research on recidivism shows that person convicted of a felony who have not reoffended with 7 years are no more likely to commit a new offense than the general population with no conviction history, and likewise for persons who have committed a misdemeanor after 3 years. |
Annual Meeting: Highlights the Need
for Eye Witness Identification Reform
to Avoid Wrongful Convictions
| At the annual meeting of CJPC in October, Boston University Law School professor Stanley Z. Fisher, one of the founders of the New England Innocence Project, was the guest speaker. Professor Fisher explained that the leading cause of wrongful convictions is faulty eyewitness identifications. He advocated for a number of simple procedures that can greatly improve the accuracy of eye witness identifications. To see the full text of Professor’s Fisher’s recent article in the Massachusetts Law Review: Eye Witness Identification Reform please click here. |
New reports on Rates of Incarceration Nationwide and Rates of Recidivism in Massachusetts
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