ACTS-CNY

LISA PARLATO, who opposes the use of arrest reports by prospective employers and land´lords, attends a county legislative committee meeting on the issue Tuesday.

However, the utility of information from the Criminal History Arrest Incident Reporting System, or CHAIRS, drops off fast in the hands of an area landlord or employer.

For one thing, the database doesn’t include out-of-county arrest records. For another, the database is not routinely updated. Was the case dismissed? Was there a guilty plea? A conviction or acquittal? Did a judge seal the case?

The fact is, employers and landlords have no business considering arrest records of prospective employees or tenants. State human rights law affirmed that point for employers just this year. The rationale is clear: In our legal system, you are innocent until proven guilty.

Yet in Onondaga County, many employers and landlords demand CHAIRS reports, which at $10 a pop earns the county up to $40,000 per year. “It’s become ingrained,” says Patricia Warth, an attorney advocate with the Center for Community Alternatives. “Employers say, ‘You will not be interviewed unless you have a CHAIRS report.’”

Continue Reading »

By Tim Knauss / The Post-Standard
December 09, 2009, 6:00AM

(David Lassman / The Post-Standard) Retired State Trooper Lisa Parlato attends a meeting of the Onondaga County Legislature's Public Safety Committee Tuesday. She was initially denied a job as a volunteer mentor in Syracuse schools because the county sheriff's background check turned up a 33-year-old arrest for shoplifting; the case was forever sealed by a judge.

Syracuse, NY - Lisa Parlato served 20 years as a New York state trooper. After she retired, she earned a bachelor’s degree in social work.

But the Syracuse school district initially denied Parlato’s request to volunteer as a mentor to pupils.

The reason: Her “background check” provided by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office revealed a black mark. It said she had been arrested for petit larceny - more than three decades ago, in 1976.

What the sheriff’s report did not say is that a judge ordered Parlato’s arrest record forever sealed from public view after she was accused of shoplifting at a DeWitt department store when she was 17. Continue Reading »

At the public meeting in November, County Executive Joanie Mahoney committed to working with the ACTS Justice Taskforce to establish procedures that will allow every person incarcerated at the Justice Center or Jamesville to obtain a New York State DMV photo ID upon his or her release. Continue Reading »

March 31, 2008 was the target date set by Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney’s office, when she committed to work with ACTS at the November 2008 public meeting, by which to have procedures in place for every person incarcerated at the Onondaga County Justice Center or the Onondaga County Department of Correction (Jamesville) to obtain a New York State Department of Motor Vehicles photo identification card upon his or her release. Having photo identification is necessary to access services that one might need post-release and to obtain employment so as to reduce recidivism.

A core group of ACTS Justice Taskforce leaders have been meeting monthly since January 2008 with representatives from partner organizations including the County Executive’s office, the Justice Center/Sheriff’s Department, the Department of Correction (Jamesville), the Probation Department, the Syracuse City School District/Incarcerated Education Program, the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Health Department, the Department of Social Services, the Jail Ministry, the Center for Community Alternatives, the Concerned Citizen’s Action Program, and the Southside Resource Center of Catholic Charities. As of March 31, the group has:

• assessed the need for this type of intervention and found that, based on samples from people incarcerated at the Justice Center and people released from Jamesville, over 50 percent of people incarcerated have no photo identification, and over one-third do not have a Social Security card;
• developed a questionnaire to be administered to people when they arrive at the Justice Center to determine what documentation they need to obtain photo identification upon release;
• secured an agreement between the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Justice Center, and Jamesville that Vital Statistics will provide, free of charge, a government-issued birth certificate for those incarcerated people born in Onondaga County or any other county in New York State;
• received a commitment from the Justice Center to use their Commissary Fund for Indigent Inmate Needs to cover, on a case-by-case basis, the fees associated with obtaining an out-of-state birth certificate;
• submitted a request for a memorandum of understanding between the Social Security Administration, the Justice Center, and Jamesville whereby certified records from the Justice Center or Jamesville could be used to obtain a Social Security card;
• submitted a request for a memorandum of understanding between the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Justice Center, and Jamesville whereby certified records from the Justice Center or Jamesville could be accepted as the four points of proof of identity required, in addition to a birth certificate and a Social Security card, to obtain DMV photo identification;
• assembled a transition sub-committee, consisting of representatives from the above relevant organizations as well as the District Attorney’s office and the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), to identify a central clearinghouse in which to store all the documentation gathered for people while they are incarcerated, and to develop procedures for assisting people in obtaining their identification upon release;
• initiated the planning for an evaluation structure to assess the implementation and outcomes of the intervention; and
• adopted procedures to conduct a pilot study of the intervention at the Justice Center to begin when responses are received regarding the memorandums of understanding with the Social Security Administration and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Emily NaPier