Author: CCRC Staff

Editorial staff of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center

Scholarship round-up IV

It’s time for another scholarship round-up! A more complete collection of scholarship on issues relating to collateral consequences and restoration of rights can be found on our “Books & Articles” page.  (Abstracts follow list of articles.) Past round-ups here. Measuring the Creative Plea Bargain Thea Johnson, University of Maine School of Law Indiana Law Journal, Vol. 92, 901 (2017) Dismissals as Justice Anna Roberts, Seattle University School of Law Alabama Law Review (Forthcoming) Unstitching Scarlet Letters? Prosecutorial Discretion and Expungement Brian M. Murray, University of Pennsylvania Law School 86 Fordham Law Review (Forthcoming) Criminal Record Questions in the Era of “Ban the Box” Mike Vuolo, Ohio State University Sarah Lageson, Rutgers University Christopher Uggen, University of Minnesota 16 Criminology & Public Policy 139 (2017) The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform Barack Obama 130 Harvard Law Review 811, 838 (2017) Obama’s Clemency Legacy: An Assessment Margaret Colgate Love 29 Federal Sentencing Reporter (forthcoming 2017) Designed to Fail: The President’s Deference to the Department of Justice in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform Rachel E. Barkow, New York University School of Law Mark William Osler, University of St. Thomas – School of Law (Minnesota) William & Mary Law Review, Vol. 59 (2017) Expungement, […]

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“Justice Alito’s misleading claim about sex offender rearrests”

The title of this post is the Washington Post’s “Fact Checker’s” assessment of a statement in Justice Alito’s concurrence in Packingham v. North Carolina about the recidivism rates of sex offenders.  We reprint excerpts because of the importance of the issue to the Supreme Court’s collateral consequences jurisprudence: “Repeat sex offenders pose an especially grave risk to children. ‘When convicted sex offenders reenter society, they are much more likely than any other type of offender to be rearrested for a new rape or sexual assault.’” –Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., concurring opinion in Packingham v. North Carolina, June 19, 2017 . . . . . The Fact Checker normally doesn’t fact-check Supreme Court justices, and we certainly do not fact-check opinions. But the topic of sex offender recidivism is worth clarifying because it is often misconstrued, so we found Alito’s claim newsworthy. And this specific claim is an assertion of fact, rather than the justices’ actual opinion. What do the data show?

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Court rules sex offenders cannot be barred from social media

The Supreme Court ruled on June 19, without dissent, that sex offenders cannot constitutionally be barred from social-networking sites.  SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe introduced the Court’s ‘s holding in Packingham v. North Carolina as follows: In 2002, Lester Packingham became a convicted sex offender at the age of 21, after he pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a child – having sex with a 13-year-old girl. Packingham got into hot water with the law again in 2010, when he posted on Facebook to thank God for having a traffic ticket dismissed. After a police officer saw his post, Packingham was prosecuted and convicted under a North Carolina law that makes it a felony for a convicted sex offender to use social-networking websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, that allow minors to create accounts. Today Packingham has something else to be grateful for, and he can take to social media to express that appreciation, because the Supreme Court agreed with him that the North Carolina law violates the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech.

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Introducing the Compilation of Federal Collateral Consequences

The CCRC is pleased to announce the launch of its Compilation of Federal Collateral Consequences (CFCC), a searchable online database of the restrictions and disqualifications imposed by federal statutes and regulations because of an individual’s criminal record. Included in the CFCC are laws authorizing or requiring criminal background checks as a condition of accessing specific federal benefits or opportunities. This newly developed tool allows individuals to identify federal collateral consequences based on the people, activities or rights affected; to access complete and current statutory and regulatory text detailing the operation of each consequence; and, to explore the relationship between consequences and their implementing regulations, and among different consequences.  This is a product that has been many months in the making, and we hope it will serve as an important resource for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers, as well as individuals with criminal records.

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“Back to Business” – A report on fair chance hiring policies

A new report examines successful efforts by corporations and government leaders to promote “fair chance” hiring policies for people with criminal histories.  Back to Business: How Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Job Seekers Benefits Your Company reviews the latest research on the effect of a criminal record on employment interviews and on the job performance of workers with such records.  The report summary continues: Several case studies presented here show how fair chance policies can promote loyalty and stability in the labor pool. The report provides a roadmap for businesses seeking to create and sustain fair chance policies, including “banning the box,” or removing criminal history questions from job applications. It explains how hiring officers can effectively carry out this policy, and how to choose background check companies that use best practices in data collection. It analyzes racial bias that has been connected with “ban the box” policies, and how to eliminate such bias by training administrators involved in hiring processes. The report also outlines compliance requirements with federal equal employment rules as they apply to people with criminal records. And it examines the issue of negligent hiring liability and how to avoid such liability. Education is critical to job readiness, employee retention, […]

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