New York Department of Corrections

This webmaster made a Freedom of Information Law request and for $2 got data files with 807,347 entries of prisoners and parolees, past and present, along with a lecture about how New York law prohibits misusing data on certain offenders, more than five years after they finish prison and parole, for employment screening or housing screening purposes. A copy can be found here. (.pdf)

Now, you may figure you can go ahead and misuse the information for those purposes and get away with it, just like some persons listed in the information figured they would get away with something. Look at how New York went after Donald Trump. They subpoena people and make them answer questions under oath, and if you try to persuade them to lie, you go to prison for that. Nobody sues for five dollars. They sue for five million dollars.

You have a job and you can afford all the food you can eat and a nice, warm place to sleep. Right now, the truth is, you haven’t misused the information for employment screening or housing screening. Keep it that way and the truth works for you.