Prepare to Seal Your Massachusetts Record

[subzero]

On May 4th Cori reform (Cori is the Massachusetts criminal record system) will fully go into effect. Your record will not automatically be sealed. You must take action to do so.

Cori reform will seal felony records over 10 years old and misdemeanors over 5 years old.

The only records that can't be sealed under the new laws are murder, manslaughter and high level sex offenders.

The vast majority of employment checks will show nothing after its been sealed though there are some employers that will still have access and police and the courts will still have access. Medical employers from what I've read will have access. Landlords will not have access. The Cori won't show anything for 99% - it won't show that there are sealed records either - just nothing at all.

Professional licensing bureaus will also see nothing when the record has been sealed.

This is a pdf from Mass Legal Services with details about the changes.

http://bit.ly/Amhp9m

This link has the forms you need to use.


http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/subject/about/cori.html

10 yrs for felonies; 5 yrs for
misdemeanors. (§128)

? Clock begins at release from
incarceration or custody. If
the sentence did not include
incarceration, the clock
begins at the time of
disposition (the conclusion of
court proceedings). (§128)

? Intervening convictions reset
the clock. (§128)

? Note: Sealing does not occur
automatically. When a
person’s record becomes
eligible for sealing (after the
waiting period), he or she can
apply to have the record
sealed by completing a form
available through the Office
of the Commissioner of
Probation (1 Ashburton
Place, Boston).

? CORI subjects have a right to
inspect and obtain a copy of
their own records. (§35)

? The department of criminal
justice information services
will publish guidelines on how
to correct inaccurate
information, and may work
with other agencies to help
individuals fix inaccurate
records. (§35)

? Note that the new procedure
is an improvement, but it took
away the right to file a
complaint to seek purging or
modification of an inaccurate
record.

CORI subjects (and their
lawyers) have a right to
request a free “self-audit”
every 90 days to learn who
accessed their records,
when, and for what purpose.
(§21)

? Unauthorized access is a
criminal offense subject to
imprisonment and fines.
(§36)

Prohibits dissemination of
convictions after a specified
waiting period that begins
after release from
incarceration or custody.
(§21)
•
10 yrs for felonies
•
5 yrs for misdemeanors
•
violations of domestic
abuse orders will be
treated as felonies
? Prior records will remain
available for as long as last
conviction is still available to
be disseminated. (§21)

? Permanent access to
convictions for murder,
manslaughter, sex offenses.
(§21)

[subzero]

This pdf really breaks down how this will work including who will have what access to your criminal background in Massachusetts.

The CORI Reform is in effect right now. The way I read this you don't have to do anything and the record will be shielded/erased with exceptions for certain crimes and certain types of work - alarm systems installers, public agencies etc

http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/chsb/...types-2012.pdf

[AwareNow]

The unpublicized artifact of the last stage of CORI reform is that exclusively using CORI brings about a liability shield. That means in some cases if CORI misses an out-of-state conviction that some people could get hired with out-of-state convictions being missed.

[subzero]

I just had a long email conversation with an official at the new CORI agency.

That pdf in my second post goes into effect without anyone doing anything so private employers or landlords just won't see anything if they run a CORI check on you.

However if you do go ahead and seal your record through the courts based on the new 5 year misdemeanor and 10 year felony rules including out of state imprisonment more than 10 years ago then after sealed the ONLY ones with access to your Massachusetts record will be law enforcement.

I qualify to have my record sealed to everyone but law enforcement in about two years because I wasn't out of prison out of Federal prison till April 2004 but in the meantime any CORI checks by an employer or landlord will show nothing.

You have to attest on the sealed records court request that you haven't had a conviction or been in prison out of state within the last ten years to seal your record with the court and lying on that is the same as perjury so if they do a check and something comes back you'd be losing all that time you had built up towards having your CORI cleaned up.

But again for 'standard access' which covers private employers and landlords your Massachusetts CORI disappears automatically after 5 and 10 years.

I went back and forth with the official 7 times before I had all this spelled out for me.

So sealing your record and having it unavailable for private employers and landlords are 2 entirely different things but they both did change under the new law.

Your CORI doesn't show out of state convictions anyway it never did. My records in RI, FL and Federal will always show up for an employer that is doing a complete nationwide background check but they don't look have that bad without MA in there. Every counterfeit check is a separate felony in MA and my MA record was 64 pages long. One employer showed it to me after waiting 2 weeks to do so after they hired me. It looked like a movie manuscript. That's all gone now for employers that just query CORI. However having applied for jobs prior to this my MA record is now stored at the bigger personnel security firms. Can't do a thing about that.