On October 18, the Bristol County for Correctional Justice coalition took a trip into the Massachusetts State House to demand that the governor investigate some concerns we have about the Bristol County House of Correction and Sheriff Thomas Hodgson who runs it.

This did not come out of nowhere.

When the sheriff announced at his swearing-in in January 2017 that he would volunteer inmates from the Bristol County House of Correction to help build Trump’s border wall, a group of citizens from Bristol County began compiling a list of obvious and more covert violations that he has committed over his tenure as sheriff when it came to running the jail.

Along with financially questionable activities of the sheriff and his grandstanding around the country to support Trump’s bigotry toward people of color at white supremacist gatherings and in far right (white) media outlets admittedly at the expense of the taxpayers, his violations of the human rights of those in his care came to light.

Bristol County jails are among the most brutal in the state with a suicide rate twice the state average and three times higher than the national average. Bristol County has the second-highest recidivism rate among county jails, where prisoners complain of starvation, medical and psychological neglect, price gouging in the commissary, and mistreatment by staff.

After contacting the Attorney General and her staff, the State Auditor and her staff, the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, the Executive Office of Public Safety, and the Governor, there still have been no financial audits of the Bristol County Sheriff’s department since 2010, and there is no published statistical information to support the sheriff’s contention that his programs – the very existence of which are disputed by inmates – are effective in rehabilitating prisoners.

BCCJ had written to Governor Baker requesting he look into this inactivity, but in spite of the group sending the letter “return receipt requested” and receiving the proof that the letter had arrived where it should have, there has been no response, not even a polite acknowledgement of receipt.

And so it was that BCCJ decided to go into the State House to ask, well, actually demand, in person that the governor get things moving.

We intended to present him with 10 demands and the reasons for them.

• Suicides – Investigate and address the high suicide rate which is twice the state average and three times the national average. And the DOC must review training and continuing education standards in the recognition of suicidal behavior, establish public standards for training of corrections officers, including: syllabus, goals, length of the program in hours, reading materials, topics covered, examination, annual assessments of officers, and standards for the removal of officers who cannot attain proficiency.
• Mental Health – Provide professional mental health treatment and offer medically assisted treatment (MAT) programs for addictions
• Solitary – Eradicate solitary confinement which is abused for administrative and retributive purposes, not for the prisoner’s benefit.
• Corrections Officers – Establish effective hiring, training, and review of Corrections Officers.
• Food – The sheriff has boasted of limiting calories to 1700a day, while the National Institutes of Health recommends 2600 calories a day.
• Exploitation – Supply free phone calls, eliminate barriers to family visitation, and end price-gouging in the commissary.
• Recidivism – Bristol County has the second-highest recidivism rate in the state.
• Audits – Perform total audit of vendors, programs, and finances at BCHOC.
• Human Rights – Investigate civil and human rights abuses.
• Failing Jail – Place BCHOC under Department of Corrections control just as the state does with failing schools.

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We didn’t know how things would go, but we got on the bus in New Bedford and headed to the State House stopping first to pick up some people in Fall River and then some in Brockton. We clearly were not having a rally as those are large, loud, and away from the target. We were going to speak directly to the governor if he would see us or to some spokesperson of his that was the best we could get.

Upon arrival we gathered on the fourth floor near the public cafeteria, and when assembled and ready to move we headed down to the governor’s office suite.

Almost immediately after explaining to the receptionist who we were and why we were there, we divided ,as is all Gaul, into three parts, one to speak to a governor’s spokesperson, another to speak to a person in the State Auditor’s office, and the third to speak to whomever was assigned to be spoken with at the Attorney General’s office.

Those of us speaking with the governor’s person, the one assigned to deal with constituents about their concerns, presented our concerns and why they should be considered. Two in the group, having spent some time in the Bristol County House of Corrections, were able to speak of conditions first hand.

The long and short of this meeting was that there is now no room for deniability. Letters have been received at the State House, as is proven by returned receipts, and conditions have been explained in person to people whose job it is to pass the information on. They cannot pretend that they had no idea, and they can be called out if they choose to do nothing, not even checking to see if what we presented might actually be true, which it is.

The governor is already having a bit of a rough go of it by not dealing with some state trooper corruption in a timely manner. Dragging his feet on this could reveal an untenable pattern if the facts are revealed to the public along with his choice to ignore them and do nothing.

Having completed our mission we took the bus home, and now we wait for a response as we evaluate the progress hopefully made and plan the next steps.