Find Northeastern Center Releases

Northeastern Center Release Meaning

Northeastern Correctional Center is an active minimum and pre-release MA DOC institution for sentenced men in West Concord. Placement there remains incarceration. A person arriving from MCI-Shirley or another DOC site has transferred within state custody. A person leaving on parole may enter the community while the sentence and Parole Board jurisdiction continue. Sentence expiration or another discharge produces a different legal status.

The January 2026 official fact card listed an operational capacity of 277 and a total count of 191. These are facility measures, not release counts. They cannot show how many people left or forecast an individual's date.

Confirm Northeastern Center Release

The official state page routes current DOC searches through VINELink. Search using the full first and last name or commitment number. Massachusetts does not provide a verified public historical discharged-person profile with a permanent release date or internal projected date. A person who no longer appears may have transferred, been released, or fallen outside the current locator's function.

1. Run the official Massachusetts DOC/VINE current-custody search and verify the exact identity.
2. Check for another DOC location. A move into or out of Northeastern is not community release by itself.
3. Request the Certificate of Discharge/Release, sentence listing, computation, actual physical release date, release type, and destination from DOC.
4. Review the sentencing docket and, where applicable, an authorized parole record. Do not equate parole eligibility with release.
5. Compare all dates and receiving authorities. Resolve whether state custody, another jurisdiction, or community supervision followed.

Northeastern Center Release Records

DOC accepts public-record requests through its online portal and at doc.rao@state.ma.us. The discretionary phone request line is 508-422-3436. Mail goes to the Primary Records Access Officer, Department of Correction, 50 Maple Street, Milford, MA 01757. Ordinarily, the first four labor hours for a state-agency request are free; additional eligible work may be billed up to $25 per hour.

Ask for the actual release event and supporting computation. Helpful fields include the mittimus, effective date, sentence terms, jail credit, earned deductions, updated dates, release type, destination, movement history, and certificate. Privacy, security, and criminal-record limits may lead to redaction. A focused request makes it easier to release segregable nonexempt parts.

Pre-release

A lower-security state-prison status used near a possible release; it is still custody.

Projected Release Date

A changeable estimate based on credits earned or expected.

Parole

Conditional community release under Board authority before the sentence fully ends.

Discharge

The formal end of the identified custody or sentence status.

Northeastern Center Contact

Use the facility line for current operational routing and the centralized DOC records office for past release evidence.

The official Northeastern Correctional Center page identifies the active minimum and pre-release institution.

The capture confirms the current facility. It should be read as a custody source, not a list of people discharged to the community.

Northeastern Center Date Limits

The public locator does not expose a verified person-level Projected Release Date, Earliest Release Date, or Earliest Release Max Date. Those terms exist in DOC calculation systems, but they are not promised public locator fields. A projected date can change as credit is earned or lost, jail credit is corrected, sentences are combined, parole changes, a court acts, or another authority places a hold.

DOC's Central Date Computation Unit reviews calculations and processes certificates. Request the current calculation and its “as of” date when timing matters. An internal forecast is not the actual gate date. Massachusetts also has no universal rule that every person serves about 85 percent. Only the person's sentence, applicable statutes, credits, and orders support a calculation.

Note: A projected date estimates a future event. The certificate and actual timestamp document what occurred.

Northeastern Center ICE Transfers

The ICE field and check-in office in Burlington is not a detention facility. State guidance explains that a federal civil detainer alone does not authorize a state or local hold, though ICE can separately assume custody. If Northeastern's release record names ICE, the person changed jurisdictions and did not necessarily enter the community.

ICE ODLS searches use an A-number and country of birth or exact biographical details. The system covers current detainees and certain releases within 60 days, not a lasting archive. Keep the DOC destination record even if the ICE result is blank. It supplies the state-prison exit route and guards against treating a limited federal search as conclusive.

Note: An exit from Northeastern to immigration custody is a transfer of authority, not freedom from custody.

Closed Middlesex Prison Signals

MCI-Concord ended custody operations on June 30, 2024, after 146 years, and roughly 300 people were reclassified and reassigned. South Middlesex stopped holding people in 2021. MCI-Shirley's former minimum and pre-release units also closed while its medium prison continued. These changes can make old facility references look like release events.

Northeastern remains active. A transfer there from a closed or higher-security unit continues DOC custody. Search statewide rather than stopping at an old prison name, and request movement records when the path is unclear. “Not at Concord,” “not at Shirley minimum,” and “at Northeastern” describe location changes. None of those phrases alone proves a community discharge.

Northeastern Center Custody Timeline

Northeastern's minimum and pre-release role makes the movement timeline especially important. Arrival from MCI-Shirley or another DOC prison reflects classification and placement within the same state system. Participation in a lower-security setting can support release preparation, but it does not create a public release event. The movement record should show the sending institution, receiving institution, effective date, and continuing DOC authority.

At the other end of the timeline, the Certificate of Discharge/Release identifies the approved state action. Ask for the actual physical release date, release type, and destination along with that certificate. A parole destination means community supervision may begin. Another institution or authority means confinement may continue. Sentence expiration and court release must be described under their own legal terms rather than grouped under the center's pre-release label.

The January 2026 capacity and count figures offer a snapshot of an active institution, not a flow of people leaving it. Operational capacity of 277 and a total count of 191 cannot be converted into monthly or annual releases. For a named person, the commitment number and movement history are more useful than facility totals. They connect the current-custody search to the later certificate and reduce the risk of confusing a transfer into Northeastern with a release from Massachusetts custody.

Northeastern Center Release Proof

Combine the certificate, computation, and docket when the event is disputed. The certificate identifies the DOC action, the computation explains the sentence dates and credits, and the docket identifies court authority. Parole documentation adds the conditional-release and supervision layer. This record set distinguishes an actual release from a transfer into Northeastern or movement to another DOC site.

The Middlesex County release search helps identify the correct custodian when the last facility is uncertain. Once Northeastern is confirmed, use the MA DOC path. The Middlesex Sheriff's Office does not issue this state-prison discharge record, and the county recent-release fallback does not cover it.

Keep the commitment number with every request and compare the “as of” date on computations. Similar names can produce a mistaken match, and an old calculation can omit later credit or court action. If the documents disagree, ask DOC to identify the controlling calculation and the receiving authority recorded at the actual exit. That narrow question targets the release issue without demanding unrelated case material.

Note: The commitment number helps connect Northeastern movement records to the correct final discharge certificate.

Northeastern Center Official Sources

Use the official Massachusetts DOC custody gateway to check current state confinement. For a prior Northeastern release, the DOC public-record request route is the source for the certificate, calculation, movement history, and destination. The facility page and these statewide channels have distinct roles in the same verification.

Note: A current DOC search and a retained discharge record cover different stages of the custody timeline.