How can I quickly confirm that a job applicant has not been convicted
of a Federal or State crime without going through the additional
expense of paying someone else to do it? On a state level, I am
interested in CT, NY and NJ...and for the Feds, a nationwide database.

Dear imjustnextdoor,

I can certainly understand your desire to know something more about a
potential employee than just what he/she has disclosed on an
application.  These days it seems we can’t be too careful.

However, you should be aware that there are some restrictions in place
that sometimes prevent even a potential employer from gaining access
to such personal and potentially sensitive information unless they can
demonstrate a clear and specific need for it.  Some recent
legislation, such as “The Fair Credit Reporting Act” is responsible in
recent years for these restrictions to previously available
information.  Nevertheless, if you want to do a quick search, and are
content with easily accessible information, there are some reasonably
easy ways to go about it.

But I should mention that since you stated extra expense was a
consideration, you should know that free might be a little more
difficult to combine with quick and easy.  There ARE sometimes ways to
get the information you want for free, but they’re often
time-consuming and cumbersome, which is why the paid services charge
for what they do.  Very often you will have to pay for the information
even if it is public as, for example, paying a fee to obtain a birth
certificate, which most of us expect to have to do.  Also for example,
not all databases of public records are yet available electronically,
which means you might need to either personally visit various
courthouses and county/state records repositories, or pay someone else
to do so.  So you see, even though it seems theoretically possible to
put one’s hands (or eyes) on any sort of public record, in practice
there’s usually quite a bit more to actually getting that done.

All that said, here’s an excellent article to start with:
http://records.4mg.com/criminal.htm   Another good place to check
would be http://www.inet-investigation.com/  They sell search utility
software (reasonably priced, actually, at $29) but they also have a
lot of good information on available for free. They give basic
tutorials in background searches as well as accessing other
information, such as driving records and credit reports, that you’d
probably find very helpful.  They also have a lot of links to various
free public databases, as well as good advice on how to access/use
them.   Here is a link to the tutorial specifically addressing
criminal background checks:
http://www.inet-investigation.com/criminal-records-check/criminal-records-check.htm
.

As to locations of public records databases, in addition to what
you’ll find at the inet-investigation website, here are some free
sites for you to try that might have the information you’re looking
for:

Free criminal record search for states including NJ:
http://www.usapublicrecords.com/free_background_checks.htm

Links to a lot of legal-related information:
General resources: http://www.findlaw.com/
State resources: http://www.findlaw.com/11stategov/
Federal resources: http://www.findlaw.com/10fedgov/
More free legal links, including one to recent verdicts:
http://www.law.com/

Sexual predators and sex offenders National Registry (includes info
for individual states):
http://www.sexualpredators.com/
http://childviolence.com/OffendorRegistry.html


Connecticut court records:
http://childviolence.com/OffendorRegistry.html
New Jersey public records: http://www.state.nj.us/opra/index.html
New York public records:
http://www.nysegov.com/citguide.cfm?displaymode=normal&fontsize=100&contrast=lod&content=main&superCat=129

National courts: Getting into this site is free, but to access the
information, there is a schedule of fees:
U.S. Courts http://www.uscourts.gov/

Here’s a link to a paid service, which has a large database and one of
the lower prices I’ve seen ($12.95 per state/county): 
http://www.criminalscreen.com/

Search terms I used included:

background checks
criminal background checks
free online background check
free criminal records
sex offender registry
free public databases
free public records

I hope this information is helpful to you.  If you decide to undertake
this type of search on your own, just one step and a time and I’m sure
you’ll find much of use.  If you decide to spend a few dollars and
have someone else do it for you, I’m sure the same will be true.  In
any case, please contact me if anything isn’t clear and I’ll do my
best to clarify it.

Best wishes,

Byrd

Very helpful, thankyou.