The state's central file is unusual. The CORI page at the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services describes name based court arraignment records, created and maintained by the Massachusetts courts, searched by submitting a name and date of birth. The department states that this type of check contains only Massachusetts information and is not fingerprint supported, and that a result can take up to ten business days. An arrest that never produced an arraignment therefore does not become CORI at all; it stays in the arresting police department's own files and in the clerk's office of the court that would have heard it.
Who sees what is set by chapter 6, section 172 of the General Laws. Criminal justice agencies read the full file, sealed entries included. Employers, landlords, licensing boards and volunteer programs with standard access receive felony convictions for ten years after disposition, misdemeanor convictions for five years, pending charges, and every earlier conviction for as long as the latest one still shows. Anyone at all can ask in writing for the open tier, which carries convictions for felonies punishable by five years or more for ten years, other felony convictions for two years, misdemeanor convictions for one year, and the custody status of anyone sentenced to prison. The person named on the record may obtain all of it. For the police departments and clerks in each place, see the Massachusetts county pages.
- Name and birth date, not prints: CORI is matched against court arraignment data by name and date of birth, which the department says is not fingerprint supported and covers Massachusetts only.
- Free self audit every 90 days: section 172 lets the subject of a record request a self audit at no charge once in any 90 day period, with a fee only for more frequent requests.
- Three years or seven: sealing a misdemeanor conviction waits three years after the finding or any custody, a felony seven, and a resisting arrest conviction is the one chapter 268 offense that may be sealed.
- Under 21 at the offense: a time based expungement requires the offense to have occurred before the petitioner's twenty first birthday, with seven years passed for a felony and three for a misdemeanor.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Massachusetts's own systems: the Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information page, the Trial Court page on searching court dockets, the Probation Service page on sealing eligibility, the court system page on expunging a criminal record, General Laws chapter 6, section 172 on access to criminal offender record information, General Laws chapter 276, section 100A on sealing, General Laws chapter 276, section 100I on time based expungement, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Pulling your own record through iCORI
Individuals and organizations register separately on iCORI, the department's online system, and the CORI page lists both registrations as top tasks beside a notice about an iCORI modernization project and a 2026 training course for the new service. A person checking on himself gets the complete history, while an employer sees only the tier its purpose allows. Section 172 puts a floor under the cost: a self audit may be requested for no fee once every 90 days, and the commissioner may charge only for requests made more often, at an amount set by the secretary of public safety and security.
The department's Civil Background Screening Services Unit takes questions at 617-660-4640 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and publishes a booklet, a guide on correcting a state or national record and instructions for requesting a criminal history from another state, since a Massachusetts CORI never includes one.
Why the public tier is so narrow
The open access tier in section 172 is the one a curious neighbor or a journalist can use, and it is deliberately thin. It carries convictions for felonies punishable by five or more years in state prison for ten years after disposition, other felony convictions or findings of not guilty by reason of insanity for two years, misdemeanor convictions for one year, and custody status for people sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
Arrests that ended in dismissal, acquittal or a continuance without a finding are not in it, and neither are pending cases, which only the standard tier and above receive. The practical consequence is that a Massachusetts arrest is usually easier to find in the docket of the district court that arraigned it than through the state repository, unless the requester is an employer with a statutory purpose.
Searching the court docket by case rather than by name
The Trial Court's public portal at masscourts.org, explained on its docket search page, shows party, event, docket and disposition details for the Boston Municipal Court, District Court, Superior Court and the other departments, and for some case types the documents themselves. The catch for an arrest search is that the Name tab works for civil cases only. A criminal case is found by its exact docket number, with correct capitalization, spacing and leading zeros, or through the Case Type tab, which lists cases opened in a chosen court within a date range that cannot exceed one month.
Public access computers at every courthouse and at the county registries of deeds run an intranet version of the portal, and the official record, with the paper filings, is held by the clerk, register or recorder where the case was filed. What may be viewed remotely is set by Rule 5 of the Uniform Rules on Public Access to Court Records, and a clerical error in an electronic docket entry is corrected by emailing the Request for Correction form under Trial Court Rule XIV to the court department.
Sealing a conviction after three or seven years
Under chapter 276, section 100A, a person asks the Commissioner of Probation on a form signed under the penalties of perjury, and the commissioner must seal when the conditions are met. A misdemeanor qualifies three years after the guilty finding or the end of any jail or prison term, whichever is later; a felony seven years. No new Massachusetts guilty finding may fall inside that window, minor motor vehicle offenses with a fine of $50 or less aside, and the form carries the applicant's statement about convictions elsewhere.
The Probation Service page adds that a conviction for resisting arrest can also be sealed, the one chapter 268 offense the statute does not exclude. A sex offense cannot be sealed for 15 years after disposition or for as long as the person must register, and anyone ever classified at level 2 or 3 may never seal one. An offense that is no longer a crime is sealable at once.
A sealed record changes what an applicant may say. Section 100A requires employment, housing and licensing applications that ask about arrests or convictions to carry a statement, and under it a person whose record is sealed may answer no record. The commissioner reports no record to most inquirers, with law enforcement, courts and appointing authorities the exception, and a sealed entry still counts at sentencing in a later case.
The Probation Service also posts a Request Not to Seal form for people who receive a letter from the court saying their records will be sealed and would rather keep them open, which some do for immigration or employment reasons.
Dismissals and nolle prosequi entries
Charges that ended without a conviction follow a different path. The Probation Service page explains that a record showing a dismissal entered by the court without probation, or a nolle prosequi, meaning the prosecutor's entry that the case will go no further, is sealed by asking the court where the charge originated under paragraph 2 of section 100C rather than by applying to the commissioner. That request goes to the clerk of the district, municipal or superior court that handled the arraignment, which is why the docket number from masscourts.org is worth finding first.
The Office of the Commissioner of Probation sits at 1 Ashburton Place, Room 405, Boston, MA 02108, reachable at 617-727-5300 on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Expungement, which destroys the record
The courts distinguish sealing from expungement on the expungement page: an expunged record is permanently destroyed so that neither the courts nor any state, municipal or county agency can reach it. Two routes exist. The time based route in section 100I requires that the offense occurred before the petitioner's twenty first birthday, that at least seven years have passed since disposition or release for a felony, or three years for a misdemeanor, that the offense is not on the excluded list in section 100J, and that no other court appearance appears on file in Massachusetts, another state or federal court, apart from minor motor vehicle matters.
Offenses from a single incident count as one. The non time based route covers records that should never have existed, such as identity fraud or an offense the law later erased, and a separate petition handles marijuana offenses. The Petition for Expungement and the Time Based Petition to Expunge are court forms, and the page points anyone who does not qualify back to sealing or to correcting the record.
Jail and prison records beside the court file
The Department of Correction takes requests for its own records under the state public records law, chapter 66, which the Massachusetts public records law guide on this site explains. A person sentenced to a house of correction appears in the county sheriff's custody rather than the state's, so the Massachusetts inmate search guide covers both. For a wider check that adds other states, the Massachusetts background check guide explains the fingerprint based national option that CORI leaves out, and the Massachusetts sex offender registry guide covers the board that classifies levels.
Questions about Massachusetts arrest records
Related Massachusetts records
Massachusetts readers can continue with the Massachusetts criminal records guide for conviction files, the Massachusetts court records guide for the clerks and the docket portal, the Massachusetts background check guide for employer access levels, the Massachusetts public records law guide for chapter 66 requests, and the Massachusetts county pages for every police department and sheriff.