Events

Span launches informational e-newsletter in March!

Span launched its first electronic newsletter to friends of the agency in March. The newsletter focused on the Pathways to Employment program, with interviews with the Program Director, Job Developer, and a mentor involved in the program. Click here to read the interviews. The newsletter also contained a client success story, which you can read about here and an interview with a Span volunteer.

If you'd like to receive future Span newsletters, email news@spaninc.org.

Span's Fiscal Year 2009 Annual Report

Span has been serving people coming out of prison since 1978. Read our latest annual report for what services we've provided in the last year and more information about who we serve. Click here to download the report (requires Adobe Acrobat).

CORI Reform

Through the eyes of its clients, Span knows all too well the effects of CORI use by employers to screen applicants for jobs. Span’s Pathways to Employment program, a U.S. Department of Labor national demonstration project, assists those just released from prison to find work and avoid re-incarceration through its job development and case management services.

A recent flyer announcing a rally in Chelsea about CORI Reform read, in part, as follows:

“GOOD JOBS can break the cycle of poverty, depression, and crime in our communities. BUT the CORI – our state’s criminal record check system – stops thousands from obtaining decent work. Having a criminal record, even if it is OLD or was NOT GUILTY is preventing GOOD PEOPLE from finding work. The time for change is NOW!”

There is a growing movement to change how the prior record of ex-offenders may be legally used to prevent them from obtaining work, housing and even volunteer opportunities, long after they've served their time and completed probation/parole.

The Commonwealth CORI Coalition hosted its first major action in 2010 to push for the passage of CORI reform in the House on January 27 from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm at the State House. The Commonwealth CORI Coalition represents over 90 organizations in support of CORI reform.

Advocates want state government to make several changes to how criminal offender record information (CORI) may legally be used:

1) To shorten the time period for sealing records to 7 years for felonies and 3 years for misdemeanors after completion of probation. Currently, an individual’s criminal record is accessible by potential employers for 15 years after the end of any parole/probation supervision for people who committed a felony; and for 10 years for people have committed a misdemeanor.

2) To change the “start of the clock” on when a record is sealed, to be upon release from prison rather than after the end of state supervision.

3) To remove non-convictions from the CORI system.

4) To institute fair hiring practices by removing the standard section asking ex-prisoners to "check the box if you have a criminal record" from hiring applications.

For more information about the work of the Boston Workers Alliance on CORI reform, click here.