EPOCA

Thanks to the dedication of our members and donors, we are working hard on multiple long-term efforts. The links on the bar above will give you information about our current projects and recent wins, and updates will also be provided through the News section of the website.

In 2009, we successfully established the passing of the City of Worcester Fair CORI Practices Ordinance, one of the most effective and progressive guidelines in the country for the use of criminal records by a local government or its contractors. The Worcester Fair CORI Practices Ordinance bans the “box” or criminal history question from all applications for employment by any City department or contracting vendor and only allows the question to arise once a conditional offer of employment has been made.

And then there’s our new state law…

Last year we won our biggest campaign to date. The Public Safety Campaign to reform Massachusetts’ system governing the dissemination and use of Criminal Offender Record Information (“CORI”) was signed into a new law by Governor Deval Patrick on July 31, 2010. Having a criminal record has been shown to decrease a person’s chance of being called for an interview with an employer by as much as 67%. The overuse and misuse of this information, not only by employers but also by schools and landlords, has trapped millions of people in poverty and desperation.

The first phase of the new CORI Reform law has now gone into effect. Employers and landlords are no longer allowed to ask, “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” on their initial applications. For the first time, everyone in this state has the opportunity to stand on his or her merits, interview for a job, and explain why s/he deserves a chance today.

EPOCA is pursuing a strategy of engaging leaders in other parts of the country in similar-community-based leadership development and power building campaigns among former prisoners. As we move forward, we will continue to work on the implementation of the CORI law within our home state of Massachusetts. Our members are involved in the enforcement of our city ordinance and the state law, CORI-related community outreach and are active in providing re-entry services, helping people to learn how to obtain and seal their criminal records.

CURRENT GOALS: EPOCA's New Campaign - Re-Routing the Prison Pipeline

We are very excited to announce our systemic change goals for the next two years! Each of the initiatives described in these pages will reverse the past 30 years’ descent into 'Incarceration Nation'. One campaign (CHINS) stops the criminalization of young people who have never even broken a law. Another (Mandatory Minimums) shortens the incarceration of non-violent people whom a judge would determine do not belong in jail. The third will shrink the mountain of fees and costs levied upon people as they try to re-enter society (RMV fees). Finally, the campaign to stop “Prison-based Gerrymandering” will end an outrageous flaw in our democracy that helps hold all these other injustices in place. Read our Campaign Story for a summary of how all these issues could potentially ruin a young person's life - and how we can turn it all around by winning systemic change.

We Deserve More than CHINS:

Every year, 9,000 children in Massachusetts are introduced to the criminal justice system through a process called “CHINS”, or “Child in Need of Services” – despite never having committed a crime. When parents, schools, guardians, or even neighbors decide that a child is out of control, they “file a CHINS on the youth”. The first thing that happens is that the youth – who is in need of services – has to appear in juvenile court, and is assigned a probation officer. Of the many ways that young people are criminalized, this is one of the most egregious. Without ever breaking the law, a child is labeled and treated like a criminal.

Many of us in EPOCA went through the CHINS system as teenagers, and others have fallen prey to the system as adults seeking help for our children. Parents often do not realize that a likely end of the CHINS process is that we lose custody of our children to the state. EPOCA is now working with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to pass a bill that accomplishes three things:

1. It would offer families counseling, mentoring, and other services without going through court or having a probation officer assigned to them;

2. It would require parents to be informed that if they do choose court, there is a chance they will lose custody of their child;

3. When schools are inclined to file a CHINS, they would be required to assess the problems that the youth is facing and attempt other remediation before filing CHINS.

Debts, Fees, Interest, Fines, Penalties…

A person re-building his or her life after incarceration or probation faces many challenges, not least of which are the mountain of fees levied by the state. Monthly probation fees, parole fees, child support penalties and interest accrued while in jail, court fees, and other costs can add up to tens of thousands of dollars. One of the most outrageous is a $500 drivers’ license reinstatement fee that the Registry of Motor Vehicles charges people convicted of drug offenses that had nothing to do with a driving or vehicles. Conviction of any drug offense under Chapter 94C of the Massachusetts General Laws carries with it the immediate suspension of a person’s drivers’ license, and a $500 fee to reinstate it. This “collateral punishment” bears no correlation to the original offense, and is counterproductive to the social good, which is that the rehabilitated person should be able to travel to job interviews and work.

We are currently working with our friends at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute to draft legislation to eliminate this $500 fee, which we hope to submit as a “late file” in this legislative session.

Reforming Minimum Mandatory Sentencing:

One of the clearest policies contributing to the growth of 'Incarceration Nation' is the mandatory minimum sentence for drug offenses. These laws eliminate a judge’s discretion when determining a fair sentence for someone convicted of using or selling illicit drugs. In practice, what they accomplish is that someone whom a reasonable person (a judge) would not lock up for a long term, is indeed incarcerated for many years. In addition, the mandatory minimum drug laws in Massachusetts also state that someone serving time under one of these sentences may never seek parole. Together, these two provisions ensure that our prisons are overflowing with non-violent drug offenders, and that we squander hundreds of millions of dollars better spent educating our children. We stand with Governor Deval Patrick and Families Against Mandatory Minimums, along with hundreds of other organizations who are seeking an end to these outdated and cruel practices in Massachusetts.

No Representation Without Population!

For several months, EPOCA members have been helping advance an effort to end prison-based gerrymandering – the practice of counting people in prisons rather than in their home towns for the purposes of the census, and then drawing legislative districts based on these faulty numbers.

Although many prisoners come from (and return to) urban communities, they are counted as "residents" of the rural districts that contain large prisons, artificially inflating the political representation in districts with prisons at the expense of voters in all other districts without prisons. We see this as an important issue of democracy, power and justice. In practice, this policy artificially inflates the political representation of people who have a stake in expanding and filling prisons, while weakening the power of communities who have a stake in policies that actually reduce crime. (Note: increasing the United States prison population 500% since 1980 has not reduced average crime rates or even increased the price of illegal drugs).

Call your EPOCA organizers for details on how we in Massachusetts can help to solve this problem nationwide!

We Won the Law Let's Make it Work - Implementing Our New State Law:

EPOCA members and our allies are engaging with the Executive Office of Public Safety to ensure the best possible roll-out of the new criminal records system. One of our top priorities is to seize the opportunity to bring private, for-profit background-checking companies into compliance with the intent of the new law. If the new regulations require those companies to follow the same rules as the state system – as a condition of accessing the state system – then we accomplish our goal of comprehensive CORI reform. If not, then the “shadow system” of private companies selling people’s personal information for a profit will continue, unchecked.

In addition to working with the Patrick Administration on the regulations, we are also helping carry out the new law on the ground. EPOCA members are collecting information on companies that violate the new “ban the box” law that went into effect last November. Many companies, including Denny's still include a criminal history question on their job applications, and others are finding sneaky ways to skirt the law. Home Depot, for example, informs Massachusetts residents who fill out an on-line job application that they do not need to check “yes” or “no” on that question. However, there are only two boxes on the screen, one marked “yes” and one marked “no.” It is impossible to proceed to the next screen without checking one of those boxes!

Two weeks ago, we helped a young man named Alex submit a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. He had been hired by Amtrak as a high-voltage electrical engineer, and then fired for checking “no” on the job application – even though he came forward later and told them about his record. Since he never should have faced that question on the application, the MCAD should have a good chance of getting him his job back.

If you hear of companies or landlords violating this law, please call our Ban the Box Hotline at 508-459-0558

Inter-State Movement Building - Taking Our Mission on the Road:

It is becoming increasingly clear that we now have a rare opportunity to reverse decades of organized cruelty in the name of “law and order”. Grassroots leaders all over the country are looking for answers for how to tackle problems of incarceration and criminal records. State and national budgets are so deep in the red that even conservative leaders such as Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell have recently written opinions in favor of reducing the numbers of people locked up. Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow is informing millions of people about the crisis we’re in and the reasons for it. Most importantly, ex-prisoners are starting to come together around the country to decide how to lead this movement. All spring, our Executive Director for Inter-state Organizing, Steve O’Neill, has been traveling the country, meeting with grassroots leaders from both established organizations and fledgling groups, sharing experiences and developing a shared vision for how we can work together and build a beloved community in place of incarceration nation.