Greater Boston Anti-Racism Media Watch

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Boston Globe Coverage of Healey"s "Soft on Crime" Attack on Patrick Misinforms Readers about CORI Again!

Boston Globe Coverage of Healey’s “Soft on Crime” Attack on Patrick Misinforms Readers about CORI Again!

The Sunday (9/24) front page Boston Globe story “Scrutiny of Criminals Heats up Race: Healey Presses Patrick on Background Checks” does readers a diservice by not providing accurate background information on the Criminal Offenders Record Information (CORI). This seems to be a pattern in the Boston Globe; I had the same complaint about the Boston Globe coverage of CORI Education Day in my posting dated Thursday May 4, 2006 on this blog. As I wrote then, the CORI was developed in the early ‘70’s to make criminal records available to police, prosecutors, probation officers, and judges. The current CORI laws contain regulations intended to protect the privacy and integrity of people with CORIs, including those with minor misdemeanors and cases where no conviction resulted. In the past 30 years and especially since 9/11 and the passage of the Patriot’s Act, this information has been made readily and widely available to potential employers, schools, landlords, etc. It has sometimes been misunderstood and misapplied. Currently 2.8 million people in Massachusetts have CORIs and 1.5 million new CORIs are produced per year affecting people of all races, ages, and backgrounds. Because their CORIs can be misunderstood or abused, many individuals are shut out of jobs, housing, entrance to college, loans, and other opportunities. Because our criminal justice system disproportionately affects men of color, misapplication of the CORI adds to the already high unemployment rate in communities of color and keeps many of those who have been accused of, or who have made and paid for mistakes in their past, from achieving the education, skills, and employment needed to change their lives.

Rather than providing an accurate history and background of the CORI legislation, the Globe lables all those with CORIs as “criminals try(ing) to re enter society…” This does not cover the variety of information contained in the CORI, including minor misdemeanors and no-convictions, nor how CORIs can be misunderstood and misapplied by potential employers, landlords, etc. The current controversy surrounding the CORI legislation is described in this story as “the fight to water down the CORI”. However, a careful reading of paragraphs 9-10 and 16-19 of the story idicates that the democratic candidate does not want to "water down" the CORI laws, but to make sure they are just and that they are fairly applied. The Globe should supply readers with accurate background and history of these controversial issues so voters can make their own informed and reasoned choices in the November election.

If you want to read the September 24, 2006 Boston Globe story “Scrutiny of Criminals Heats Up Race: Healey Presses Patrick on Background Checks,” visit the Boston Globe online (http://www.boston.com/news/globe) and register an account to view all their articles on the web.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home