Esta ley enmienda la Ley Núm. 41 de 5 de agosto de 1991, Ley de la División de Juntas Examinadoras, para establecer que las Juntas Examinadoras no pueden rechazar de plano la solicitud de un aspirante a una profesión regulada por esta ley que tenga antecedentes penales. En su lugar, las Juntas deben evaluar individualmente cada solicitud, considerando los requisitos legales, la naturaleza del delito (especialmente si implica depravación moral o seguridad pública) y si el aspirante está en probatoria o bajo palabra.
(Approved January 4, 2002)
To add a Section 7 to Act No. 41 of August 5, 1991, Examining Board Division Act, in order to establish parameters that shall require that the Examining Boards do not flatly reject the application of an aspirant to a profession covered by this Act, who has a penal record, and the same be evaluated individually to determine his/her eligibility.
Of the eighty-seven (87) occupations in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico that require a license, most of them require the applicants to provide a Certificate of No Penal Records in order to practice the trade or occupation or to take the examination of the corresponding Board.
Within this group, there are countless persons who, because they have a penal record, are prevented from practicing one of these occupations, in spite of their efforts to be rehabilitated by holding an honest, productive and beneficial job for our society.
Section 1 of Act No. 254 of July 27, 1974, establishes what the citizenry refers to as the "Certificate of Penal Record", which is a list of the verdicts of guilt that are filed in the record of each person who, having been sentenced in any Court of Justice of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, already has an open file in the Puerto Rico Police, which is the agency in charge of issuing said certificates.
Said conduct is totally contrary to the provisions of Section 19 of Article VI of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which
establishes as the public policy of the Commonwealth to enable the moral and social rehabilitation of convicted persons.
It likewise constitutes a flagrant deviation to what is established in Section 1 of the Bill of Rights, which consecrates the inviolability of the dignity of human beings, as well as recognizing that all men are equal before the Law.
The indiscriminate application of this norm by the Examining Boards constitutes an abuse of authority against the public policy of the State directed to the rehabilitation of the individual, as well as a restriction of a citizen's right to be restored or part of society, to be productive, and that offends his inviolable dignity, after having paid his debt to the Government for having violated a law. The power of the State to regulate a profession cannot deprive a citizen of his/her profession or occupation to earn a living.
When the legislator included the certificate of good conduct among the requirements for aspirants to the eighty-seven (87) occupations that require a license, he was requesting a document that would attest to the social conduct of the aspirant, regardless of whether he/she had committed a crime or not.
This Legislature, in the exercise of its duty to ensure the compliance of all guarantees offered in our Constitution to our fellow citizens, and in its zeal to recognize imminently rehabilitating nature of the penalties in our jurisdiction pursuant to the provisions of the applicable legislation, deems it necessary to establish certain parameters in Act No. 41 of August 5, 1991, which shall bind the Examining Boards not to flatly reject the applications of an aspirant to practice a profession covered by this Act who has a penal record and that said applications be evaluated individually in order to determine his/her eligibility.
Section 1.- Section 7 is hereby added to Act No. 41 of August 5, 1991, Examining Boards Division Act, as amended, to read as follows: "Section 7.- Evaluation of Penal Records. The Examining Boards shall not reject the application of an aspirant to a profession covered by this Act, out-rightly who has a penal record.
In these cases, the Examining Boards, in the exercise of their powers conferred by law, shall have the duty to evaluate the application of an aspirant who has a penal record individually and determine his/her eligibility, taking into consideration:
Section 2.- This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 4 (H.B. 1548) of the $2^{ ext {rd }}$ Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to add a Section 7 to Act No. 41 of August 5, 1991, Examining Board Division Act, in order to establish parameters that shall require that the Examining Boards do not flatly reject the application of an aspirant to a profession covered by this Act, who has a penal record, and the same be evaluated individually to determine his/her eligibility, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $21^{ ext {th }}$ of November of 2003.
Elba Rosa Rodríguez-Fuentes Director