Advocates say criminal records still impediment

Push to expand state’s anti-discrimination law

After her release from prison in 2011, Tiheba Bain tried to buy a life insurance policy.

She was confronted immediately by a questionnaire asking if she had ever been convicted of a crime. “I’m not going to lie and say ‘no,’ so I said, ‘Yes,’ and they said, ‘Oh, you don’t qualify,’ ” Bain recalled, adding that she eventually obtained insurance at a much higher rate.

A former drug addict who served a decadelong sentence in both state and federal prisons on a kidnapping charge, Bain also felt the sting of discrimination when applying for a job. Even though she had been recruited for the position, and went through several interviews, she said she was “phased out, no longer a candidate for the position, after revealing the nature of my crime.”

Bain and other activists came to the legislative office building Thursday to press for an expansion of the state’s antidiscrimination law to include protections for people with criminal records. The law already bans discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religion and gender identity and expression, among other categories.

The proposal is part of a broader agenda address racial inequities in the state’s criminal justice system and ensure that

former prisoners have a chance to reintegrate into society, find work and support their families.

“A person’s arrest or conviction alone does not tell you whether they will be a good employee, neighbor or insurance policy holder,” said Gus Marks-Hamilton, a former prisoner who now works as a field organizer for the Smart Justice Initiative, an effort by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut to end mass incarceration and eliminate racial disparities. “That record should not be a deciding factor in whether an otherwise qualified person can find a job, home or an insurance policy.”

The proposal has the backing of two key Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Rob- yn Porter and Sen. Gary Winfield.

“If they’ve done the time and done what they’ve needed to be released from prison. ... It shouldn’t be a life sentence when they come home,” Porter said. But “that’s what this has turned into. Felonies are scarlet F’s that actually crucify people for a lifetime.”

Porter, who represents New Haven, said she supports the measure because it’s the right thing to do for her constituents and the state, but she also has a personal stake: “My son was incarcerated. He has been home for over three years and I am personally going through these things with him.”

Advocates said they believe the bill has a strong chance of passing the legislature this year. A poll commissioned by the ACLU of Connecticut last year showed broad, bipartisan support for a criminal justice overhaul. Ninety percent of those polled said they agree that “people who have been convicted of a crime and have served their sentence should have a fair shot at getting their lives back on track without having their prison sentence held against them.”

Winfield, a New Haven resident and co-chairman of the powerful judiciary committee, said a criminal record should not mark a person for life. “When I was a kid, my mother, who was a tough mother, used to tell me ... ‘If (you) do the crime, you do the time,’ ” he said. “I just don’t think she thought the time was for the rest of my life and that’s what were really dealing with here.”

Barring discrimination on the basis of a criminal record is essential to helping former prisoners rebuild their lives, Porter said. “We have barriers that say, ‘No, you can’t live here; no, you can’t work here; no, we don’t want you.’ Yet we expect (you) to be productive citizens, and I just think that’s being hypocritical,” she said.

“We are robbing them of the opportunity to be productive citizens of this state,” Porter added. “We can’t sit in judgment because we all fall short, we all make mistakes. Not one of us on this planet is perfect.”

Gov. Ned Lamont has signaled that he supports efforts to make the criminal justice system more equitable, although he has not weighed in on proposals.

The advocates also support a separate bill that would require Connecticut prosecutors to provide demographic data on defendants.