For example, in 1996, Congressman & Chairman of House Ways & Means Committee, Dan Rostenkowski served 17 months in prison for mail fraud. He even plead guilty! 2 years later, he’s hired by Fox Affiliate WFLD as a political commentator.

2008, City Clerk, James Laski is convicted of corruption, and does a year in the slammer. Shortly after getting out, he’s in business with a brand new radio show on WGN, Chicago.

“I sat down with the Daleys and the Blagojeviches and the Madigans…I’ve been there and done the good and bad. Here’s the thing: It’s time to move forward.”

It’s bad enough people are having a hard time finding work as it is, but this only makes it worse for them. Employers are digging deeper into people’s pasts. Even after the courts purged or expunged arrest information, and criminal records, offender’s pasts can still haunt them. Records can still appear in newspaper archives and data mining companies.

Getting criminal records expunged or sealed doesn’t come cheap and not everybody is eligible. Besides that, in the digital age, this is not a cure-all. Even if arrest records and criminal information are purged by the Clerk of the Court, or law enforcement agency, offenders’ pasts can still haunt them. Background information may still exist in private data mining companies. This raises the question, is it really possible to erase your digital criminal past? Unfortunately, this is the result of a growing information broker industry. Most of these private firms are unregulated, except for credit checks.

Unfortunately, private data companies have no legal obligation to remove criminal records from their database, so they can often provide more complete information to employers, hence many simply turn to private database firms to dig up the information.

Your employer is going to run a background check on you. Find out what your employer is going to see about you, whether the records contain falsehoods or errors, and whether you can or should have them expunged or sealed…

Many parents worry about adult sexual predators in their neighborhood, but never give it much thought that other kids might be sexual predators. One mother was completely unaware the 16-yr old babysitter she trusted, was sexually abusing her 3-year old daughter while her 5-year old son was watching. The babysitter was treating it like a game. Most people don’t realize how big this problem is. This goes on more often than people realize. Easily a third of child victims were victimized by an older child. 11-year olds have been known to commit rape.

If a juvenile is in the juvenile court system, their records are sealed, so schools have no access to them. However there is one caveot. A person under 18 can be tried as an adult for rape and sexual battery, and if found guilty, they are required to register as sex offenders in most states.

An important ethical question often asked is should this be legal? Should the needs of employers to run criminal background checks take precident over the individual’s right to privacy and a clean history?

The reason cited by the DBPD, is to help detectives to better track down any possible associations between the suspect and the victim, and possible motives behind the crimes. The chief of police feels they need to see a bigger picture, which includes a better understanding of the victim. This concept is nothing new. It was first used by the NYPD in the 1980s.

There is however concern that this policy might discourage victims from reporting crimes committed against them. Somebody who say, has outstanding warrants would certainly have good reason to keep quiet.

Victims of violent crimes often have criminal records themselves. Today’s drug dealer, may become tomorrow’s murder victim.

An investigation revealed widespread criminal activity amongst prison employees and eventually forced Florida Dept. of Corrections Secretary James Crosby to resign. Gov. Jeb Bush had no choice but to ask him to resign. He later plead guilty in Federal Court to taking kickbacks from a subcontractor, plus 7 fellow prison employees were charged in Florida State Court, of various thefts and accepting bribes.

Both agreed to plea guilty to the single charge of accepting kickbacks in exchange for lenient sentencing. Criminal charges could have carried 10 years in Club Fed.

At the time, the Florida Dept of Corrections was plagued with scandals, including drug abuse by prison guards, sexual assault, and bribery. The FDLE accused Crosby of attempting to shut down an investigation of criminal activity in the FDOC.

The jail / prison time, probation, fines, and other judicial punishments is only part of the punishment. A criminal record itself is a long-term punishment that can often be lifelong. For many, this is the real punishment. Many people fail to take this fact into consideration.

A sex offender may never again be able to work with kids, live wherever he wants, or be able to set foot in a nudist resort. A convicted felon will never be able to work for the Federal Government or likely ever get a professional high-paying job in the private sector. Many ex-cons can only land dead-end minimum wage jobs for years after release from prison or jail.

A criminal record that stays with one, long after all sentences are served can be forever life-changing. Ex-convicts find themselves religated to unskilled minimum wage jobs, irregardless of their education, background, training, past achievements, or work experience. Even traveling outside the US could be a problem. Getting a US Passport would be difficult if not impossible, plus Canada and other countries have laws prohibiting ex-convicts from legally entering their country.

In one case in Florida, a NASA engineer was accused and convicted of an anthrax hoax. After having served 8 months in jail, she was turned down for several great job offers, including an administrator position at the Johnson Space Center in Houstin TX, and an engineering job solely because of her criminal record.

Criminal records are just that – nothing but records, but they can leave an indelible mark for life.

It was discovered that this has been going on undetected for years at Bay Pines VA Medical Center in Seminole, Florida. The sex offenders were primarily working with middle school and high school kids. One offender in particular who had been employed there for 15 years, confessed and plead guilty to sexual molestation of a teenage girl in 2003.

US Rep. Mike Bilirakis R-FL: “I am deeply disturbed that the VA employs convicted sex offenders.”

US Congress ordered the VA to reveal the identities of ALL sex offenders who work for them ASAP. The St Pete Times had earlier brought attention to this issue when they revealed it to the public.

Bay Pines VA pulled the teenagers from the program a few days later.

According to the FDLE, the State of Florida has 35-36,000 registered sex offenders.

It’s a fact that about 46% of prisoners and jail inmates have kin who’s also behind bars somewhere. Researchers at Harvard Medical School predict that expanding DNA searches to criminal’s close relatives could increase arrests by 14%.

This crime-fighting strategy, which is growing in popularity in the UK takes into consideration that relatives of criminals are also much more likely than others to commit crimes themselves, and the perpetrator may infact be a relative of the suspect originally sought by police. It has been argued for decades there may be a “criminal gene.”

This whole new concept of kinship DNA analysis has undoubtedly raised many eyebrows in the privacy rights activist community, as well as many ethical delemmas. It has been argued this will lead to investigation of the innocent.

Florida law does allow one to have their criminal records expunged or sealed, but you would be well adviced to consult an attorney, as it’s not as simple as you might think. It all depends on the nature and circumstances of the criminal offense.

Normally, one would first need to apply to the FDLE in Tallahassee to obtain a Certificate of Eligibility before petitioning the court to seal or expunge the record. The person would need to meet specific criteria to receive this document.

The person would then need to submit a sworn affidavit (under penalty of perjury) that he/she has not been convicted of a criminal offense, has never sealed or expunged his record in the past and is eligible for the sealing.

You would then file your petition to seal the records in the appropriate court. Additional details are found under Chapter 943 of the Florida Statutes.

When one’s criminal records are sealed, that does not mean they are erased or deleted from existence. Sealed records may remain available to law enforcement, but they are just closed to everyone else out side of law enforcement. Ie: employers, schools, insurance companies, etc…