Gov. Deval Patrick wants to take Massachusetts a step back more than 20 years, when criminals were permitted to hide their crime records from the public.

It was a bad idea then. It's a bad idea now. It was a time when feel-good measures took precedence over protecting the public. Now, as our former leaders were then, Gov. Patrick seems more concerned with the rights of convicted criminals than he does with the safety of the public.

During the administration of Gov. Michael Dukakis, a murderer named William Horton walked away from a furlough program and went to Maryland, where he raped a woman then tortured her and her fiance. The uprorar over the case and the lack of response by the Dukakis administration to the issues it raised resulted in a reform of the Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, law that made it easier for the public to access criminal records.

But criminals and those who advocate for them have long argued that the background checks allowed by the law make it difficult for offenders to obtain jobs or find housing. Patrick has heard their pleas.

Some of the steps the governor took in his CORI reform are commendable. Patrick wants law enforcement officials to be able to view all sealed criminal records, something they cannot currently do. He wants to forbid a sex offender's record from ever being sealed from public view.

But the governor is also diminishing the public's ability to examine criminal records. Relative to employee background checks, Patrick issued an executive order that would let state officials see parts of CORI reports relevant to the job being filled. But he also instructed the Department of Health and Human Services to seek ways to remove some barriers that prevent individuals from employment in the health and human service field.

Patrick will ask the Legislature to shorten the time that must pass before an offender can seal his or her records from public view. Current felony offenders must wait 15 years before their records can be sealed. Misdemeanor offenders must wait 10 years. Patrick wants those limits reduced to 10 years for felonies and five for misdemeanors.

Patrick's reforms have been hailed by advocates for criminal offenders, such as Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts, a Boston-based group that sent out press releases Friday touting them. A look at the language in the releases offers a view of the mindset shared by activists and the governor.

"CORI records are like scarlet letters that marginalize a significant segment of our population preventing them from accessing housing and employment," said Wilnelia Rivera, organizer with Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts. "People with CORI records need to be protected from discriminatory hiring practices in the private sector."

No comment on the need to protect the public from criminal offenders. Then there's this:

"I have a CORI record for something that happened over 10 years ago and I'm still being punished," said Debra Murray of Springfield.

There's no mention of the nature of Murray's crime. But it was "something that happened" - not an act she committed and for which she should pay a price.

The Legislature should not cave in to Gov. Patrick's desire to make life easier for criminals. If anything, the CORI law should be strengthened to provide greater public access to such records.

Those who do not wish to be dogged by criminal records all their lives can achieve that quite easily: Don't commit crimes.