Latest news with #CriminalOffenderRecordInformation
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Some criminals barred from shelter system under new regulations
BOSTON (WWLP) – Governor Healey rolled out regulations tightening eligibility for shelter that will bar some people with criminal convictions from utilizing the emergency housing system. Last month, the legislature passed a series of regulations, alongside $425 million in supplemental funding for shelters. Healey's new regulations execute the policies laid out in the bill. Committee makes plans for joint rules compromise Included among new rules, all adults must agree to a Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI check, or be automatically ineligible for shelter. Those with serious convictions, including murder, rape and sexual assault, firearms felonies or misdemeanors in the past six years, and drug trafficking in the past three years, will also be ineligible for shelter. While the governor said Massachusetts is taking necessary steps to mitigate costs for Massachusetts residents, she maintains that the migrant crisis is a federal issue. 'Massachusetts is managing this federal problem, but Congress needs to act on meaningful immigration reform instead of making Massachusetts taxpayers foot the bill for their failures,' Healey said. State House Republicans voted against this package of regulations, saying CORI checks are not enough. These regulations will begin to take effect at a time when about three-quarters of the families seeking shelter system assistance are long-time Massachusetts residents. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mass. launches criminal record checks for shelter seekers
BOSTON — All adults seeking shelter in the state's emergency assistance program must receive a criminal background check before accessing benefits under new action by the Healey administration, which also lowered the system's maximum capacity. Gov. Maura Healey's office on Friday rolled out regulations that execute many of the reforms in a shelter funding and safety bill she signed last month, including a requirement for adult shelter applicants to disclose their criminal histories and agree to a Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, check. Effective Friday, an applicant who refuses a CORI check will be ineligible for emergency assistance shelter. The regulations also outline more than a dozen criminal convictions and charges that would disqualify shelter seekers, including murder, rape and sexual assault, firearms felonies or misdemeanors in the past six years, and drug trafficking in the past three years. "These changes will empower our team to keep families, staff and communities safe by enhancing our criminal background check process and disqualifying anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime," Healey said of the new regulations. "Additionally, we are making real progress when it comes to lowering the cost of this system to taxpayers — and we are on track to hit all of our goals by the end of the year. Massachusetts is managing this federal problem, but Congress needs to act on meaningful immigration reform instead of making Massachusetts taxpayers foot the bill for their failures." Applicants must verify their identities and familial relationships before being placed into the state-funded shelter system, Healey's office said. Republicans voted against the bill before it landed on Healey's desk, arguing that Massachusetts CORI checks are not enough because they would not capture crimes committed in other states or countries. The regulations landed about two weeks after Healey signed into law a bill that simultaneously provided the cash-strapped system with another $425 million to keep it afloat through June and implemented a range of temporary and permanent reforms, including a six-month limit on shelter stays. Healey's office on Friday also announced changes to its prior emergency declaration "to reflect that the EA system's capacity is now at 5,800 families." The governor previously set a cap of 7,500 families, and in recent months the caseload has fallen to about 5,800, her office said. With more families exiting the system, Healey's office said the administration is "on track to reduce caseload to 4,000 families and close all hotel shelters by the end of the year." The mix of shelter seekers has shifted. About 75% of families seeking services are long-term Massachusetts families, a change from earlier in the crisis when about half were newly arriving migrants. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Massachusetts launches criminal record checks for shelter seekers
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
State bars shelter eligibility for some criminal convictions
BOSTON, Mass. (SHNS)–All adults seeking shelter in the state's emergency assistance program must receive a criminal background check before accessing benefits under new action by the Healey administration, which also lowered the system's maximum capacity. Gov. Maura Healey's office on Friday rolled out regulations that execute many of the reforms in a shelter funding and safety bill she signed last month, including a requirement for adult shelter applicants to disclose their criminal histories and agree to a Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, check. Governor Healey orders inspection of all Massachusetts shelters after gun, drugs found Effective Friday, an applicant who refuses a CORI check will be ineligible for emergency assistance shelter. The regulations also outline more than a dozen criminal convictions and charges that would disqualify shelter-seekers, including murder, rape and sexual assault, firearms felonies or misdemeanors in the past six years, and drug trafficking in the past three years. 'These changes will empower our team to keep families, staff and communities safe by enhancing our criminal background check process and disqualifying anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime,' Healey said of the new regulations. 'Additionally, we are making real progress when it comes to lowering the cost of this system to taxpayers — and we are on track to hit all of our goals by the end of the year. Massachusetts is managing this federal problem, but Congress needs to act on meaningful immigration reform instead of making Massachusetts taxpayers foot the bill for their failures.' Applicants must verify their identities and familial relationships before being placed into the state-funded shelter system, Healey's office said. Republicans voted against the bill before it landed on Healey's desk, arguing that Massachusetts CORI checks are not enough because they would not capture crimes committed in other states or countries. The regulations landed about two weeks after Healey signed into law a bill that simultaneously provided the cash-strapped system with another $425 million to keep it afloat through June and implemented a range of temporary and permanent reforms, including a six-month limit on shelter stays. Healey's office on Friday also announced changes to its prior emergency declaration 'to reflect that the EA system's capacity is now at 5,800 families.' The governor previously set a cap of 7,500 families, and in recent months the caseload has fallen to about 5,800, her office said. With more families exiting the system, Healey's office said the administration is 'on track to reduce caseload to 4,000 families and close all hotel shelters by the end of the year.' The mix of shelter-seekers has shifted. About 75 percent of families seeking services are long-term Massachusetts families, a change from earlier in the crisis when about half were newly arriving migrants. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Security consultant rules Mass. shelter system ‘safe' but calls for changes, including ‘targeted' policies for migrants
Level 3 sex offenders are considered those with the highest risk of re-offending. Davis said officials should not place any level 2 or level 3 sex offenders in shelters, such as hotels, that also house families and children. According to his report, there are Advertisement Davis said the state should also 'differentiate' between long-time Massachusetts residents and 'non-Massachusetts residents' who are entering the shelter system, and craft what he called 'targeted' policies for families who are 'homeless due to immigration and address their specific needs accordingly.' His report does not specify exactly what those separate set of policies should entail, but cited a policy in Denver that limits shelter stays for recent immigrants to 72 hours. 'Establishing separate accommodations for immigrant populations [is] among the proposed measures to bolster the overall safety and efficiency of the EA Shelter System,' the report reads. In an interview, Davis said he believes the state's emergency shelter system is 'safe.' 'It's safer now than it was 30 days ago' when he launched his review, Davis said. 'But we're dealing with human systems. You're doing the best that you can.' Advertisement Healey tapped Davis in January to do a review of the system. The state has since signed a contract that will pay his consulting company up to $175,000, both to perform the review and help implement the findings through August. State officials said they had already begun implementing some of Davis' recommendations, some of which matched changes tucked into the spending bill Healey signed Friday. Among those is a change eliminating so-called 'presumptive eligibility' by requiring families to prove they meet specific criteria, including verifying their identity and residency, before they are placed in shelter. Healey hired Davis at a time of The Globe reported that According to Davis' report, while the shelter system's population exploded, so did the number of serious incidents reported, which rose by 788 percent between 2022 to 2024. Healey in January began requiring additional background checks of adults in emergency shelters using the Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, system, and implemented a new policy in January for the family of someone convicted of a felony to be moved into more permanent housing. Even with additional background checks, however, Advertisement The bill she signed Friday mandates that every adult applicant to the shelter disclose any criminal convictions or pending charges for 'serious crimes.' It also directs the state to obtain criminal records for each applicant before placing them into emergency housing. It calls for the Healey administration to create rules limiting or excluding from the system those convicted of or facing charges for serious crimes. Before Healey changed state policy on background checks, shelter providers conducted CORI checks at their own discretion, according to Davis' report; the results were not shared with or documented by state housing officials. The state added CORI checks to its own intake teams' responsibility in mid-January. But even when the state has 'flagged' someone because they have a criminal record, state officials have not shared the details with the on-site shelter providers. Instead, they receive what the report called a 'general restrictive placement flag without details on severity' of the criminal record. In one instance, shelter staff saw someone placed at the site wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet, and only learned after the fact that the person was facing gun possession charges, the report said. Davis recommended the state share more detailed information about someone's criminal history with on-site staff, among other changes. 'It's very difficult for them to do their job if they're not fully informed on where the potential threats are,' he said. He also recommended the state create standard visitor management policies, such as 'ID scanning,' and ensure those in shelters have resident identification badges. In a statement, Healey said her administration is 'ready to get to work' in implementing both Davis' recommendations and the changes included in the spending bill. Advertisement The now-law will cut the amount of time families can stay in the emergency shelter system from nine months to six months, and will cap the number of families allowed in the system by the end of the year to 4,000 — down from 7,500 now — for all of 2026. As of Thursday, 5,628 families were staying in emergency shelters across the state, according to Of those, the state was housing roughly 2,062 in hotels and motels, a practice Healey has The bill Healey signed Friday limits families to six consecutive months in the system; it allows so-called hardship waivers for a range of families, including those with children under 6, veterans, or family members who have a disability. The system is In a statement Friday, the Massachusetts Republican Party argued the bill 'does nothing to stem the flow of migrants into the state,' nor does it help make shelters safer. 'This is yet another example of Democrats prioritizing politics over public safety and fiscal responsibility,' MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said. Matt Stout can be reached at
Boston Globe
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Mass. lawmakers reach deal on $425 million shelter bill, could soon send it to Governor Healey
It also seeks to cut the number of families allowed in the system from 7,500 to 4,000 beginning Dec. 31, and keeping the new limit in place through 2026. Advertisement As of last week, 5,704 families were staying in emergency shelters across the state, according to Of those, the state was housing roughly 2,150 in hotels and motels, a practice Healey has Healey administration officials project the shelter system will cost the state more than $1 billion this fiscal year, and warned legislators that it would run out of money at the end of January. The $425 million infusion is intended to keep the system funded through the end of June. While advocates said they are grateful that lawmakers committed the funding needed to continue the program, they are also concerned that the limitations on the program will put an extra strain on some of the state's neediest families. Advertisement There was also little room for public input, said Kelly Turley, associate director for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, though she hopes that changes as lawmakers debate other changes that could impact the shelter system, including the budget plan for the fiscal year that begins in July. 'We hope to make sure that the voices of families directly participating in the program, providers, advocates, and community groups that are on the front lines also are able to weigh in,' Turley said. 'There is a lot of uncertainty overall with the program.' The soaring cost of running the shelter system reflects the parallel migrant and housing crises gripping Massachusetts, which have greatly exacerbated the need for emergency housing in the state. The bill also seeks to beef up how the state vets those entering shelters, including requiring every adult applicant to disclose any criminal convictions or pending charges for 'serious crimes.' It would also mandate that the state obtain criminal records for each applicant before placing them into emergency housing. Those suggested changes come as officials Under the proposal, applicants who do not disclose criminal convictions or charges 'shall not be eligible for benefits and any existing benefits shall be terminated.' It also calls for the Healey administration to create rules limiting or excluding from the system those convicted of or facing charges for serious crimes. Healey recently began requiring additional background checks of adults in emergency shelters using the Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, system, and implemented a new policy last month for the family of someone convicted of a felony to be moved into more permanent housing. The background check change, however, Advertisement Healey last month said she was also tapping former Boston police commissioner Edward Davis to lead a review of the security protocols for the emergency assistance program. A Healey spokesperson said Tuesday that Davis submitted a report, and that officials were reviewing it. Her office did not release a copy. The legislation the House passed Tuesday would make a series of other changes. It would require families to prove they are eligible for shelter and have Applicants would also need to show 'an intent to remain' in the state, including by providing documents showing they're receiving benefits under MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, or other 'public benefits.' Republican lawmakers had sought to tighten the rules further, including setting a six- or 12-month residency requirement for those in the shelter system. But Democratic leaders warned that setting a specific duration on residency would be unconstitutional. The bill would funnel the $425 million infusion from the state's escrow account, which was built with with money previous budget surpluses. State Senator Michael Rodrigues, the chamber's budget chief, said earlier this month that $174 million will be left in the account after the money to prop up the shelter system is dispersed. Advertisement Matt Stout can be reached at
