When it came to the proposal to release some inmates and ICE detainees in his jails to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in his jails, the sheriff of Bristol County in Massachusetts, Thomas Hodgson was adamant in his refusal to even consider the idea.
The official response was,
“We have no current plans to release inmates in the manners you described. We continue to monitor the Corona virus situation; it is fluid and changing daily.”
When the idea of the releasing low-level offenders who may be vulnerable to the corona virus in the Bristol County House of Correction, the sheriff said he has the capabilities to keep prisoners safe from the pandemic.
“Releasing people to go back into the community, whether back to friends, family, or whoever may be exposed already? Why would we add people to that environment, when we have a controlled environment here? We could probably get them medical treatment faster.”
He also claimed,
“We’ve not had any circumstances with any inmates here indicating [that they may have the corona virus].”
In the meantime, three staff members at his facility have tested positive for Covid-19.
And conditions may not be as clean and manageable as the sheriff has been claiming, especially as he justified giving his staff well deserved raises because,
“My staff has to come into a very challenging environment, and we’ve actually asked them to do quite a bit more to minimize the risks of people contracting the disease in here. They have to go through decontamination and when they go home the first thing they have to do is wash their clothes. So, these are really are sort of over-and-above precautionary things that they otherwise wouldn’t have had to do. And certainly, dealing with the inmates and the new protocols and things that we have, I felt that they were definitely worthy of it.”
“The ongoing efforts of our team and attention to detail regarding the historic challenge before us have been amazing. Provided we remain mindful and vigilant with our social distancing and personal sanitation, both here and in the community, we can reach our shared goal of preventing our inmate population, us, and our families from becoming exposed to and infected by COVID-19.”
“So far we don’t have any COVID-19 cases, knock on wood, in regards to our inmates and detainees. We hopefully won’t have any, but we’ll see. We’ve asked them to take extra precautions and disciplines, and we’re grateful for that.”
“but we’ll see” would imply it could go either way with little or any idea which way that might be.
And, obviously, the change from things being just peachy and under control to becoming what he now admits is “an environment that is dangerous”, would imply the direction is not good.
Perhaps, he should take steps now and not wait until circumstances are such that his experiment goes awry, and he is dealing with a facility filled with infected people at which point he might be proven to have been just too wrong and pig headed to have put aside his pride and act like he runs a house of correction and not a house of horrors.
As he continues to play tough guy sheriff and is now endangering the inmates in his jail and his staff who work with them because like his hero, Trump, he refuses to acknowledge the realities of the COVID -19 pandemic, learn the history of Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. Get to know who he is so when reality hits you will be better able to decide if he needs empathy or reproach.