It seems to be a no-brainer that if a person has nothing to hide that person would not object to the light of day.
In light of Sheriff Tom Hodgson’s claim that any investigation of his running of the Bristol County House of Corrections as the sheriff is a political hit job, it would seem that he would welcome an investigation as it would disprove the claims about his high rates of suicide and recidivism, the lack of mental health treatment, bad food, poor environment, and his waste of taxpayer money to take non- job related trips on the taxpayers’ dime.
But when he has been asked about whether or not he would welcome a full investigation on all he has been accused of, he has responded that he will not take part in what, to him, is purely a political attack.
Why would he not welcome something that would unquestionably show he is what he is and his opposition is what they are?
The best way to remove doubt is to remove it.
When he claims his white supremacist leanings is his way of dealing with the threat posed by immigrants, he should be willing to produce the studies and statistics to back his claims about the threat so people can see he is telling the truth. He needs to reveal the statistics upon which he bases his attempts to overstep his actual job of running his jails and getting his inmates to and from court instead of trying to present himself as some sort of law enforcement supervisor of the communities in the county who is dedicated to keeping the citizens safe.
To this end, in the past he equipped a donated boat so he could patrol the Bristol County shores, and purchased a mobile command center to use in his attempt to make his job more glamorous than it really is, only to be told by the Coast Guard that his shore patrols were not needed as they took care of that, and local police and fire chiefs had to tell him they already had the necessary mobile command centers to do what was their jobs and not his.
When he says conditions at the jail are above average, he should not object if people show up for unannounced walkthroughs rather than have them request a visit to be scheduled which allows time for cosmetic and temporary clean up that can evaporate as soon as the visit ends.
Who hasn’t cleaned their apartment knowing the landlord was coming so the place is spotless, or their work place because a central office supervisor has scheduled an inspection, or their restaurant kitchen when a health inspector is known to be coming?
In multiple interviews, whether newspaper, radio, or television, when the only basis for his claims about the threat posed by immigrants is, as he has said, basic common sense, this only holds if everyone, including himself, had good common sense and there were no studies, statistics, and reports which he ignores that might have more realistic weight.
When he is accused of misspending funds, he should be willing to open his books rather than answering Freedom of Information requests with partial information bereft of details and complete figures.
Until he starts practicing transparency, the charges against him will continue and his claims, based solely on his word, can be easily disregarded as the people he makes these claims to do not have much faith in his word, but often have the facts, documents, and copies of his interviews that he will conveniently contradict if he needs to deny a more recent charge, and only ask questions to which they already have the answers in his own words.
He claims people make things up for political reasons when what they are actually doing is quoting him.
He claimed recently that charges of abuse are fictitious and his inmates are fed well, while in an interview in the recent past, he told the reporter that to punish one inmate in solitary confinement he made sure his meals were “bland and unsatisfying”. He has also boasted that he cut coffee and orange juice from the budget, replacing the orange juice with Tang that the inmates love. If Tang is all you get, there’s nothing else to love.
Rather than have a counseling program to help those in his jails who are addicts or suffer from mental illness he believes reading the Bible is a good rehabilitation. He once explained,
“Always remember that God writes straight with crooked lines. What that means is something’s going to click for you, or somebody’s going to say something, or an experience will happen that you don’t know where it came from but it somehow altered your mood, your attitude, your perspective on life. You won’t be able to understand where it came from, it just happened. So we talk about that kind of thing.”
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Yet, when it comes to the psychological needs of those under his watch, he also has admitted,
“I’m not a psychologist — I don’t have any background in it”.
Yet his above stated belief trumps programs that are run by those who are psychologist and have a background in it.
He rejected being part of a trial program to deal with those in his jail addicted to opioids, a program that has shown measurable success in other states, even though he claims the problems in his jails are the result of having the most opioid addicted people in the state.
Apparently all they need is a little Bible and the patience to wait for their Road to Damascus lightning bolt from on high.
He recently published a letter in the local paper, the newspaper for which his spokesperson has worked and still has connections, a letter he is credited for writing, but could very well have been written by this person, listing all the great programs he makes available to inmates. But, while he may offer programs such as drug counseling, vocational training, and religious mentoring, defense lawyers and inmate advocates have explained that there’s not enough of it and what there is is too small to be anything beyond existing to meet the minimum for show.
He claims his 48% recidivism rate is the state’s average, but that would mean some other jail has a recidivism rate well over 90%. He attempts to distract from the fact that his 48% rating is based solely on his jail and the number of inmates in it.
His own press person has admitted that Bristol County does not keep any sort of internal recidivism statistics, so how does he back his own claim, other than with, “I said it, so it’s true”?
His default for countering any claims against him is to label the accuser an agitator with a political agenda, an odd put down from a person holding an elected position.
You would think that a person accused of leading in county jail suicides, lacking proper mental health treatment, providing inadequate nutrition, having a too high rate of recidivism, and either promoting or ignoring a number of human right violations among other things, would welcome the opportunity to have neutral parties investigate to ascertain if these accusations have any basis in fact, and thereby end the ongoing stream of complaints, accusations, and law suits.
As it is now, while claiming he has been audited and evaluated, receiving top ratings, he is not all that willing to present the documentation.
Short of this, relying solely on calling those making the claims “agitators with no information” without him supplying verifiable information, those accusations will continue.
If he has nothing to hide, why is he so intent on hiding?
And if I am wrong about this, wouldn’t an investigation conducted by people other than those on his payroll go a long way to make me, and the many other people and organizations who are privy to the documentation, look stupid?
He seems to be hiding something.