Healey orders criminal background checks for people entering Mass. shelters - Anlık Haber

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has ordered that everyone entering the state’s shelter system undergo criminal background checks, saying Friday that she was surprised to recently learn the checks were not being performed.

Shelter rules require the reporting of all crimes with background checks for sex offenses and warrants already implemented, however criminal background checks were only being done at overflow shelters, Healey said, despite her orders last spring to have them at all state shelters. She’s initiating an outside review on safety protocols for the shelter system.

“I have asked former Boston Police Department Commissioner Ed Davis to lead an independent outside review reporting directly to me to take a full look at our shelter system and to determine what if any additional steps need to be taken in terms of safety security protocols to protect our communities,” she said.

The governor also wants to work with the Legislature to amend the right-to-shelter law to “align with its original intent,” saying the 40-year-old law “did not imagine” waves of people arriving to the Bay State, nor did it expect federal government inaction on immigration.

Incidents over the last year have raised questions over safety. Last March, a man was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child at a shelter in Rockland, and this week, a man arrested at a hotel in Revere for allegedly possessing a large quantity of drugs and an assault rifle.

Healey noted that the shelter inspections she ordered recently have been completed for hotel shelters, but she did not provide results of those reports.

Healey said that Massachusetts taxpayers should not pick up the bill of a broken immigration system and went on to list the efforts of her administration to reduce shelter service costs and get people jobs.

Costs for the external review, and the plan to address security stemming from that assessment, will be made public she noted.

The top House Republican blasted the Healey administration Friday for their management of the state’s emergency assistance shelter system. Minority Leader Brad Jones said the family shelter crisis is “wildly unsustainable and unmanageable for the Healey Administration” and called for the state to halt additional funding to shelters until reforms are made.

“Whether it’s incompetence, intransigence or negligence, changes must be made. It’s time for heads to roll,” Jones said in a statement.

The State House News Service contributed to this report.

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