By Ellen Fleming

BOSTON (WWLP) – A legislative briefing Wednesday at the State House brought out support in hopes of sealing certain criminal records.

Advocates of second chance, clean slate bills spoke on the difficulties of living a free life post incarceration due to CORI checks. CORI’s are criminal background checks that are often run when applying for a job or housing.

At the briefing on Wednesday, former inmates shared their stories about how difficult it is to go about their lives post incarceration because of their CORI.

Leslie Credle, founder of Justice for Housing told 22News, “Well you know, they call us returning citizens right? But we’re not treated as equal citizens right?”

There are multiple bills on Beacon Hill dealing with record sealing. One bill, An Act Providing for Easier and Greater Access to Record Sealing, would require the Commissioner of Probation to automatically seal criminal and juvenile records after the applicable waiting periods without having to fill out a petition

Another bill, An Act to Remove Collateral Consequences and Protect the Presumption of Innocence, which is sponsored in the Senate by Senator Gomez, would provide the immediate seal of a criminal offense at the time of the final disposition if the charged did not end in a conviction and if the defendant does not object to it being sealed.

In Massachusetts, we really need clean slate legislation because so many people are out there, they’re unemployed, rejected for housing and this bill would be life changing,” said Pauline Quirion of Greater Boston Legal Services.

Now this wouldn’t allow for all records to be sealed, for example, present exclusions in the law for sex offenses or other serious offenses would remain intact. Both sets of bills have been referred to the Judiciary Committee and have not yet been scheduled for a hearing.