ACTS-CNY

Chair: Ms. Emily Napier

Monthly Meeting: Every third Tuesday of the month, 415-515pm, Catholic Charities (1654 W. Onondaga St., Syracuse)

Prohibiting the Public Disclosure of CHAIRS Reports

The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office maintains the Criminal History Arrest Incident Reporting System (CHAIRS).  This system was initially designed, several decades ago, as an intelligence tool to protect the safety of officers when responding to situations.  The database includes records of arrests made in Onondaga County by the Sheriff’s Office, the Syracuse Police Department, and most other local police agencies in Onondaga County.  It does not, however, include the dispositions, or outcomes, of those arrests.  Often, the disposition of a case would require that the arrest record be sealed and not released to the public.

The Sheriff’s Office advertises that “background checks” are available for $10 each from their office.  These “background checks” are actually CHAIRS reports and, more often than not, list arrests that should not ever be released to the public.  Employers and landlords in Onondaga County, however, often require applicants to provide their CHAIRS reports to be considered for employment and residency.  Because a person’s criminal history often appears worse on a CHAIRS report than it actually is, people may be denied employment, housing, and other opportunities to be productive members of our communities.  It is a violation of New York State Human Rights Law §296(16) to consider arrest information or to compel an applicant to produce arrest information when making hiring decisions.

We are calling on the Sheriff’s Office to stop the public disclosure of CHAIRS reports and return to the original intent of CHAIRS as an officer intelligence tool.  We have met with Sheriff Walsh, and his position is that the Sheriff’s Office is providing a public service by disclosing CHAIRS reports.  However, this system actually does a disservice to many of our community members who have errors on their CHAIRS reports.  And the safety of everyone in our community is compromised when people are unable to obtain employment or housing.

Prior to our Nov. 1^st 2009 Public Action Meeting, County Legislator Richard Lesniak, then chair of the Public Safety Committee, agreed to add our issue to the Public Safety Committee agenda. 

On December 9, the Post-Standard wrote a in-depth article on our presentation at the Public Safety Committee meeting and on December 11 the Post-Standard wrote a tremendous editorial supporting our position.

 

Photo Identification for People Being Released from Jail and Prison

Two years ago we set out to remove the barriers that people face when trying to obtain photo identification after being released from jail and prison, and County Executive Joanie Mahoney committed to work with us.  In order to get a photo ID card from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), one must present a birth certificate, Social Security card, and four additional “points” of proof of identity, such as a school ID card, utility bill, or Medicaid card.  The DMV does not accept records from jails or documents from probation or parole as proof of identity.  Photo ID is necessary to obtain employment, access services, become more civically engaged, and ultimately reduce recidivism and increase public safety.

Locally, the Onondaga County Department of Health agreed to provide birth certificates, free of charge, to people incarcerated at the Justice Center or Jamesville who were born in Onondaga County-the Justice Center has been providing this service.

At the state level, we have met with Governor David Paterson, who committed to speak with NYS Department of Motor Vehicles officials to advocate for a change in the current policy of not accepting records from county jails and state and federal prisons as proof of identity.  If this route does not work, Senator David Valesky has committed to introduce a bill in the NYS Senate to amend DMV procedures so that they will accept records from local jails as proof of identity.

At the federal level, the offices of Congressman Dan Maffei and U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have been communicating with the Social Security Administration on our behalf.  We are working to develop legislation so that they, too, will accept records from our local jails as proof of identity.