Boston (WBZ Newsroom) -- Some ex-cons in Massachusetts may be getting a break from the Legislature.
The House is considering a bill to reduce the time before criminal records can be sealed and make other changes. Sex offenders would not be included.
House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi supports the legislation, which won approval Wednesday in the Judiciary Committee. If approved in the House, it would go to the Senate. The bill is a reworked version of a proposal first made by Gov. Deval Patrick.
Supporters hope the changes would reduce the number of ex-cons who go back to prison by making it easier for them to get jobs.
Former prisoners would be able to request sealing of their records five years sooner if the bill becomes law. The minimum time now is 15 years in felony cases and 10 years for misdemeanors.
Michael O'Keefe, the Cape and islands district attorney and president of the state Association of District Attorneys, said his organization goes along with the changes related to CORI, the state's criminal offender records information program.
The CORI-related changes also would make the records more understandable to employers and others who use them, O'Keefe said, while increasing the fine for illegally disclosing CORI information from $500 to $5,000.
But the District Attorneys Association membership is divided on a proposal to shrink the zone around schools where drug offenses are punishable by tougher penalties from 1,000 feet to 100 feet, according to O'Keefe. The group has taken no position on that question, he said.
Backers of the change say the zones are so big now that they apply in cases that don't involve preying on children.
E-Mail Story
Print Story
