Crime Committee Report e.indd - New York State Senate

Court Administration, which also provides statewide criminal conviction information.
Instead, the DOCS information database, available on the Internet as a free service, is being
misused as an inappropriate criminal background check resource for employers and others.
The result of this practice is that numbers of qualified job seekers are being denied access to
employment and housing based on information that is often incomplete and potentially misleading.
For example, it contains information about when a person is eligible for release from
parole but, because the database is maintained by DOCS and not the Division of Parole, omits
information that the person has been discharged from parole, leaving the impression that they
are still under state supervision. Moreover, the DOCS database can be accessed by name alone,
making it likely that a person with a common name but no criminal history might be confused
with another person, currently or formerly incarcerated, with the same name. Old, incomplete
and misleading information about a person’s incarceration is simply irrelevant five years after
that individual has been released from prison and is no longer on parole or post-release supervision.
Given the other options in New York for individuals to obtain complete criminal history
information, the time that a conviction history can be posted on the DOCS website will now be
limited, at most, to five years after a person is released from prison plus any period of parole
or post-release supervision. This bill would not apply to any violent offenders or sex offenders.
Therefore, DOCS would continue to maintain information about violent offenders and sex
offenders on their website and would not be required to remove such information after the
expiration of the applicable period.
S.4689 HASSELL-THOMPSON / A.3814 Aubry
Signed into Law under S.6606-B / A.9706-C
Federal Probation and Expedited State Certificate – Re-entry
Signed into law by Governor Paterson, in order to seek relief from state-imposed disabilities,
persons convicted of a federal offense residing within New York must apply to the state
Board of Parole. The Correction Law provides that the Board of Parole has the power to issue
a certificate of relief from disabilities to an eligible offender who resides within New York and
whose judgment of conviction was rendered by a court in any other jurisdiction, such as a federal
court. Therefore, a person with a federal conviction presently must apply to a state agency
unfamiliar with his or her background for relief from the state imposed civil disabilities. This
is an arduous and time-consuming process. Currently, the Board of Parole takes 12-15 months
to process an application for relief. Since virtually every federal sentence includes a period of
supervised release by the federal probation office following any period of incarceration, the
federal probation office estimates that it would be able to provide recommendations to the
Board of Parole in 6-8 weeks since the federal probation office will be more familiar with the
federal offender and has easy access to his or her relevant records.
This change will reduce the backlog of applications at the state Board of Parole; place the decision
about the issuance of certificates of relief from disabilities for persons with a federal conviction
in the hands of more familiar probation officers; promote greater efficiency in granting
said certificates from state-imposed disabilities; and save money for the overworked state Board
of Parole. At the same time the legislation reserves complete control over the issuance of the
certificate with the State Board of Parole.
S.6606-B
HASSELL-THOMPSON & VOLKER / Aubry
Signed into Law under S.6606-B / A.9706-C
Access to Copy of Rap Sheet – Re-entry
Signed into law by Governor Paterson, upon request the Division for Criminal Justice Services
will be required to send to an inmate in local or state custody a copy of all criminal history
information on file with the Division. The intent if this bill is to provide an offender with a
copy of his or her record so that any errors may be brought to the attention of the Division of
Criminal Justice Services.
Standing Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction | 2009-2010 Report 43