Provides the criminal information of certain persons may only be posted on the department of corrections' website for a period not to exceed five years after his or her release

Summary of provisions

Section one amends the correction law by adding a new section 9 which provides that any information relating to the conviction of a person may be posted on the department's website for a period not to exceed five years after the expiration of such person's sentence of imprisonment and any period of parole or post-release supervision. However, in the case of a person who has been committed to the department on more than one occasion, the department may post conviction information relating to any prior commitment on such website for a period not to exceed five years after the expiration of such person's sentence of imprisonment and any period of parole or post-release supervision arising from the most recent commitment to the department.

The foregoing provisions do not apply to any person who is convicted of an offense that would make the person ineligible for merit time under section 503 of the correction law (violent offenders) or to persons required to register as a sex offender.

Justification

The New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) website provides online access to a person's conviction informa- tion. Currently, there is no limit on how long a person's conviction information will remain posted on this online database.

DOCS has a legitimate need to maintain a website of individuals incar- cerated in state prisons. Victims of crimes may want to ascertain if people who committed crimes against them are still incarcerated and family and friends of people in prison may need a means of determining where their loved ones are being held. Once a person is released from prison and is no longer on parole or post-release supervision, however, those reasons disappear. Those individuals who need criminal record information can obtain it from New York State's Division of Criminal Justice Services, which provides comprehensive criminal conviction information to individuals and agencies who are authorized to conduct such requests, and from the Office of Court Administration, which also provides statewide criminal conviction information.

Instead, the DOGS 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 large 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 DOGS 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 incarcera- tion is simply irrelevant five years after that individual has been released from prison and is no longer on parole or post-release super- vision. Given the other options in New York for individuals to obtain complete criminal history information, the time that a conviction histo- ry can be posted on the DOCS website should 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, DOGS 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 peri- od.

Prior legislative history

2009: A3131 (Bradley) - Third Reading 2008: A3070A (Bradley) - Rules 2007: A3070 (Bradley) - Rules 2006: A6393A (Bradley) - Codes 2005: A6393A (Bradley) - Corrections

Fiscal impact on the state

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have become a law.