Justice and selling data


Commercial databases make it harder to get control of your information
Your data is not safe, even if it is expunged.

In 41 states, people accused or convicted of crimes have the legal right to rewrite history.  They can have their criminal records expunged, and in theory that means that all traces of their encounters with the justice system will disappear. 


But enormous commercial databases are fast undoing the societal bargain of expungement, one that used to give people who had committed minor crimes a clean slate and a fresh start. 



Most states seal at least some records of juvenile offenses.  Many states also allow adults arrested for or convicted of minor crimes like possessing marijuana, shoplifting or disorderly conduct to ask a judge, sometimes after a certain amount of time has passed without further trouble, to expunge their records.  If the judge agrees, the records are destroyed or sealed.  


But real expungement is becoming significantly harder to accomplish in the electronic age.  Records once held only in paper form by law enforcement agencies, courts and corrections departments are now routinely digitized and sold in bulk to the private sector.  Some commercial databases now contain more than 100 million criminal records.  They are updated only fitfully, and expunged records now often turn up in criminal background checks ordered by employers and landlords.  



Thomas A.  Wilder, the district clerk for Tarrant County in Fort Worth, said he had received harsh criticism for refusing, on principle, to sell criminal history records in bulk.  



"How the hell do I expunge anything," Mr.  Wilder asked, "if I sell tapes and disks all over the country?" 



Private database companies say they are diligent in updating their records to reflect the later expungement of criminal records.  But lawyers, judges and experts in criminal justice say it is common for people to lose jobs and housing over information in databases that courts have ordered expunged. 

All this begs the question. Why sell that data in the first place?

— NeoWayland

Posted: Wed - October 18, 2006 at 04:53 AM  Tag


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