Who Sees a Massachusetts Criminal Record

Criminal Offender Record Information, universally called CORI, is the Massachusetts criminal record. This page explains in detail who can see a person’s CORI and for how long. The firm’s page on Massachusetts sealing and expungement standards explains how sealing and expungement work, with the case law and the offense exclusions.

What CORI Is, and When the Record Begins

M.G.L. c. 6, § 167 defines CORI. CORI is information compiled by a Massachusetts criminal justice agency concerning an identifiable individual. The information must also relate to the nature or disposition of a criminal charge, an arrest, a pre-trial proceeding, other judicial proceedings, a dangerousness hearing under M.G.L. c. 276, § 58A, sentencing, incarceration, rehabilitation, or release.

Section 167 restricts CORI to information recorded in criminal proceedings that are not dismissed before arraignment. For an offense punishable by incarceration, arraignment is ordinarily the point at which the pending charge enters CORI. No complaint, arraignment, or CORI entry results from an application that a clerk-magistrate denies at a clerk-magistrate hearing. A pre-arraignment dismissal also results in no CORI entry. A police report, arrest record, Registry record, or other independent record may remain. A dismissal after arraignment changes the disposition but leaves a CORI entry unless and until the law permits sealing.

Section 167 separately excludes offenses that are not punishable by incarceration. The exclusion for offenses not punishable by incarceration applies to ordinary first-paragraph unlicensed operation under G.L. c. 90, § 10, which is punishable by fines under G.L. c. 90, § 20. Operating after suspension or revocation under G.L. c. 90, § 23 includes a fine-only classification and several classifications that authorize incarceration. The question whether the charge enters CORI therefore depends on the charged classification.

Section 167 also excludes conduct by a person under eighteen unless the person was adjudicated as an adult in the Superior Court or after transfer from a juvenile session. Section 167 excludes evaluative information, statistical reports in which individuals are not identifiable, and intelligence information.

The Agency and the Portal

The Department of Criminal Justice Information Services, abbreviated DCJIS, maintains and disseminates CORI. M.G.L. c. 6, § 167A establishes DCJIS within the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The agency was called the Criminal History Systems Board until the Legislature renamed it in Chapter 256 of the Acts of 2010, the CORI reform. Requests are made through a web portal called iCORI. An employer, landlord, school, or volunteer organization must register for an iCORI account before it can request anything.

The names CJIS and DCJIS are often confused. CJIS is not the agency. CJIS is the Criminal Justice Information System, the law enforcement data system defined in 803 CMR 7.00. The board that remained after the 2010 reform is the criminal record review board, established under M.G.L. c. 6, § 168, which sits within DCJIS and hears challenges to the accuracy of a record.

The Three Levels of Access

The statute, M.G.L. c. 6, § 172, contains thirty-three numbered paragraphs and uses no tier labels at all. The labels come from the regulation, 803 CMR 2.05, which provides that the three levels of CORI access are Required Access, Standard Access, and Open Access. What a requester sees depends entirely on which level applies to that requester. The Legislature set the categories of access in § 172. The page on what the Massachusetts Legislature decides in a criminal case covers § 172 together with the other statutes that govern a criminal case.

Standard Access: Employers, Landlords, Volunteer Organizations, Licensing Boards

Standard Access is the level that applies to an ordinary job application, a rental application, a volunteer position, and an application for a state or municipal professional or occupational license. Section 172(a)(3) limits the information released at Standard Access to the three categories listed below.

• Felony convictions, and findings of not guilty by reason of insanity, for 10 years following the disposition, including termination of any period of incarceration or custody.
• Misdemeanor convictions for 5 years following the disposition, including termination of any period of incarceration or custody.
• Pending criminal charges.

Three details of the Standard Access rules affect what a requester sees. Many explanations of CORI leave out those details.

The waiting period runs from the later of two dates. Under 803 CMR 2.05(4)(a), the five-year or ten-year period runs “following the date of disposition or date of release from incarceration or custody, whichever is later.” For a person who served time, the period runs from release, not from the day of the plea.

A continuance without a finding shows as a pending charge during the continuance period. Section 172(a)(3) provides that pending criminal charges “shall include cases that have been continued without a finding until such time as the case is dismissed pursuant to section 18 of chapter 278.” A standard-access employer will see a pending charge on the CORI of a client who takes a continuance without a finding and then applies for a job during the probationary period. The case becomes a non-conviction and no longer appears at Standard Access after the court dismisses it at the end of the term.

A new conviction makes older convictions available again at Standard Access. The statute provides that “prior misdemeanor and felony conviction records shall be available for the entire period that the subject’s last available conviction record is available under this section.” A single new misdemeanor conviction makes a twenty-year-old conviction available again for five more years.

For Standard Access, the statute treats a violation of M.G.L. c. 209A, § 7 or M.G.L. c. 258E, § 9, which is a violation of a restraining or harassment prevention order, as a felony subject to the ten-year period. Records of cases that ended without a conviction are not released at Standard Access at all. The statute says the information “shall be limited to” the three categories above. A dismissal, a nolle prosequi, a finding of not guilty, and a continuance without a finding that has terminated in dismissal are not shown to a standard-access requester, sealed or not.

Required Access: Schools, Camps, Childcare, Elder and Disabled Care

Required Access under M.G.L. c. 6, § 172(a)(2) applies to a requester authorized or required by a statute, a regulation, or an accreditation requirement to obtain CORI. Required Access has four levels, set out in 803 CMR 2.05. Each level includes everything in the level before it.

• Required 1. Required 1 covers all pending charges, including a continuance without a finding until it is dismissed, and all adult misdemeanor and felony convictions with no lookback limit at all. Required 1 also covers offenses for which the subject was adjudicated as an adult and the permanently available convictions described below.
• Required 2. Everything in Required 1, plus criminal offenses that did not result in a conviction.
• Required 3. Everything in Required 2, plus all juvenile offenses, including pending charges.
• Required 4. Everything in Required 3, plus criminal offenses that have been sealed.

A conviction that an ordinary employer stopped seeing years ago is still visible, without any time limit, to a school district under M.G.L. c. 71, § 38R, and to a children’s camp under M.G.L. c. 6, § 172G.

The conviction is also visible without time limit to an entity providing services to an elderly or disabled person under M.G.L. c. 6, § 172C, and to the Department of Early Education and Care under M.G.L. c. 6, § 172F. Sections 172B and 172F also expressly make conviction data, arrest data, sealed record data, and juvenile arrest or conviction data available for foster and adoptive placement decisions.

Section 38R provides that DCJIS “shall only disseminate information under this section that would otherwise be available to requesting entities under sections 167 through 178, inclusive, of chapter 6” and the regulations under them. School districts also run separate fingerprint-based state and national checks, which are a federal process and not CORI.

Open Access: The General Public

Any member of the public may request a record on a named person by supplying a correct name and date of birth. Section 172(a)(4) limits the information released at Open Access to the four categories listed below. The time periods are much shorter than at Standard Access.

• Convictions, and findings of not guilty by reason of insanity, for any felony punishable by 5 years or more, for 10 years after disposition including release from custody.
• Custody status and placement for a person currently serving probation or a sentence, or under the custody of the parole board.
• Other felony convictions and insanity findings for 2 years.
• Misdemeanor convictions for 1 year.

Open access shows no pending charges and no non-convictions. A member of the public who looks up a neighbor with an open case will see nothing about it.

A Person’s Own Record and the Self-Audit

Under M.G.L. c. 6, § 172(a)(5) and § 175, a person may obtain all CORI pertaining to that person. Section 175 gives the person the right to inspect the record and, if practicable, obtain a copy. There is no lookback on a personal request. Convictions, non-convictions, and pending cases all appear.

A self-audit is different from a personal request for CORI. People often confuse the two. Under 803 CMR 2.02 a self-audit is a report of all CORI requests made on the requesting individual through iCORI, apart from requests by criminal justice agencies. The self-audit shows who requested the person’s CORI, but it does not show what each requester received. A person who suspects an employer ran a check without authorization asks for the self-audit.

DCJIS does not hold sealed records for a personal request and does not seal records. The Commissioner of Probation administers sealing. A person obtains a sealed record from the Commissioner of Probation.

Convictions That Remain Available Permanently

Section 172(b) exempts four categories of conviction from every lookback limit. The four categories are convictions for murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and sex offenses as defined in M.G.L. c. 6, § 178C that are punishable by a term of incarceration in state prison. Convictions in the four categories “shall remain in the database permanently and shall be available to all requestors listed in paragraphs (1) through (3),” which means criminal justice agencies, required access requesters, and ordinary employers and landlords alike.

The subsection ends with the words “unless sealed under section 100A of chapter 276.” Sealing is the exception named in the statute. The sealing exception is the reason to pursue a seal for a client who has assumed that nothing can be done about a permanently available conviction.

What Sealing Changes

A sealed record is not erased, but the answer given to a requester changes completely. Under M.G.L. c. 276, § 100A, the Commissioner of Probation, responding to an authorized person other than a law enforcement agency, a court, or an appointing authority, “shall in the case of a sealed record… report that no record exists.” Section 100C imposes the same rule on clerks of the District Court, the Superior Court, and the Boston Municipal Court.

Section 100A provides that an applicant for employment, housing, or an occupational or professional license with a sealed record on file “may answer ‘no record’” to an inquiry about prior arrests, court appearances, or convictions. Section 100C adds that sealed records “shall not operate to disqualify a person in any examination, appointment or application for public employment” in the Commonwealth or any of its subdivisions. Section 100C also gives the Attorney General power to enforce that provision by suit in equity.

Sealing has two limits. Criminal justice agencies, firearms licensing authorities under M.G.L. c. 140, § 121, and the criminal record review board obtain sealed records under § 172(a)(1). Under § 100C, a sealed record is also made available to the probation officer and to the court after a finding or verdict of guilty on a later offense. The probation officer and the court do not receive a sealed record of a not guilty finding, a no bill, or a finding of no probable cause.

The firm’s page on Massachusetts sealing and expungement standards sets out the waiting periods, the offenses excluded from sealing, and the Pon good cause factors, with full citations. The page also sets out the J.F. rule of mandatory sealing for a not guilty finding, the K.W. standard for expungement under § 100K, and the categorical exclusions in § 100J. In addition, the page explains what a state seal does and does not do to an FBI record.

Records of Restraining Orders and Harassment Prevention Orders

The rules for the record of a 209A restraining order or a 258E harassment prevention order differ from the rules for the criminal records described on this page. A 209A abuse prevention order or a 258E harassment prevention order is a civil order, so the order does not appear in CORI.

The sealing and expungement statutes that govern criminal records do not apply to either order. The order is recorded in the statewide registry that judges consult in later cases. A judge can expunge the order only on clear and convincing proof of fraud on the court. Serpa Law Office explains the registry, the databases that hold the record, and the expungement standard on its page on expunging a Massachusetts restraining order and answers common questions in its restraining order expungement FAQs.

The federal section of the firm’s page on sealing and expunging a criminal record explains the FBI identification record, the national instant check system, and the reporting limits of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration review federal records when a person applies for Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck. The firm’s page on Global Entry, NEXUS, and TSA PreCheck after an arrest explains how each agency treats a Massachusetts arrest, a CWOF, and a sealed record.

The firm’s Massachusetts domestic violence records FAQ explains how a domestic violence case creates records that a background check later reveals.

The firm’s post on United States v. Coloian addresses the question whether a federal criminal record can ever be cleared.

Attorney Joe Serpa has practiced Massachusetts criminal defense since 1995. He represents clients at clerk-magistrate hearings and in criminal cases involving domestic violence, drug charges, OUI, and other Massachusetts offenses. He also advises clients about the criminal-record consequences of the charge and disposition. Call 617.936.0201 or contact Serpa Law Office for a confidential consultation.