When the scientific reality of Coronavirus was first being discovered almost a year ago now, many local county sheriffs chose to ignore the science and, accepting the virus as a political rather than medical situation, became too defensive interpreting practical advice about dealing with the virus in a closed and tight community as somehow being personal, politically motivated attacks on them, and seeing any facts as simply political arrows aimed at them.

They were not open to suggestions, somehow morphing from administrators of jails to become medical experts of the least informed kind.

Simple proposals to thin the herd in county jails by releasing those incarcerated for alleged low-level offenses or those there only because they could not post bail were rejected, not based on observable reality, but on the need to defend turf.

This regulated release would be helpful for all concerned, inmates and staff, and would reduce medical costs to the sheriff departments because any necessary medical care would be covered by the patient, not the jail.

The usual concern of the incompetent set is to object to any suggestion coming from without because of the insecure assumption that if it appears the leader did not think of something, people would think it was because their incompetence was showing a little.

Many years ago, at the beginning of my teaching career, I had designed a program for my Special Education students that would boost their motivation to learn which would be verifiable through heightened measurable educational achievement. I had designed the program with a friend of my mother who ran a similar program with the VA, and because of his involvement in the planning, and as it was designed after a federal government program, my proposal took into account all applicable laws concerning Special Education Sheltered Workshops in a school setting, so the reluctance to allow the program being based on ever added requirements made it clear there was something other than the program itself that was the problem.

Not long after I left that district and the program, once allowed, showed its benefit almost immediately, I found that the real basis of the reluctance was the look that was presented by a mere classroom teacher having come up with a program that the higher up administrators thought one of their own should have, and the public would see it as evidence of an administrator’s inability to effectively do the job.

It wasn’t about what would benefit students, but how it might look for one of the highly paid occupants of the central office. The fear was that someone else’s proposal, no matter how effective, should not be allowed because the source of the idea was not one of them.

There was a totally unnecessary and detrimental defensiveness.

Accepting ideas and suggestions from others, rather than being seen as a way to make the task easier, was seen as an admission of not having come up with the idea, and that made someone look weak.

For his part, the Bristol County Sheriff opted to make the House of Corrections a Petri Dish rather than adopt any suggestion that came from anywhere but his too eager to be seen by the right people politicization in his own mind.

Cruel and unusual is not always blatant and observable when it comes to punishment. It can be deliberate or subtle, with the proclivity to neglect so ingrained in the jailer that it is automatic, and, without close scrutiny, goes unnoticed.

There are people in the Bristol County House of Correction who are innocent until proven guilty and others who at their trial will not be proven guilty, so punishment of any kind is out of order.

There can be punishment by act and punishment from neglect.

Sheriff Hodgson, known for the number of suicides, overuse of solitary confinement, and various forms of inmate neglect in his jails, said that the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office wouldn’t follow the recommendations proposed to lower the county jail population throughout the state.

He knew better.

“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.”

“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.”

During the Republican National Convention, the sheriff had traveled to DC where he declared the State’s republican delegates for Trump, attended the big White House gathering for Trump’s acceptance speech, appeared in pictures not wearing a mask and guy-hugging other equally unmasked attendees, and within days of his return to the state, rather than self-quarantine as required, he attended gatherings that required  photos of dense crowds  gathered to support Trump or large group ceremonies meant for public relations photo-ops, standing maskless and shoulder to shoulder having just returned after at least a week’s stay in a place where he mingled without protection with people from all over the country where COVID was a visible problem or soon would be.

This is the man who saw no need to do more than he had been doing in his facilities to stem the spread of COVID regardless of the number of people sitting in a cell just short of the end of their sentences and those with minor infractions, but who, because of courts being closed due to the pandemic did not have their days in court as originally scheduled and had to remain far beyond the expected release date for no other reason than the sheriff wanted to appear tough on crime

To justify his actions and biases, the sheriff threw out his go-to fictitious claims about the amount of crime he protects the people of the county from with no facts to back those claims, and, surprise, in keeping with his hero, Trump, his biggest target is all the crimes committed by “criminal illegal aliens” who seem to be rampaging through the county’s streets while being clever enough not to be noticed by most of us while they are doing it. As it is, although ICE may pick up the occasional someone committing a crime or having someone arrested for allegedly committing crime delivered to them, most of their big raids are done at places where people are working.

The Sheriff conflates people who have been arrested and/or adjudicated because of serious crimes with people who simply could not meet bail or are awaiting their hearing on a minor crime like driving without a license or missing a probation appointment.

He does not differentiate or even mention this distinction when he speaks about who is in his jails.

He implies everyone in his jails is a criminal and a threat to the county without indicating whether any of the crimes he wants us to believe the incarcerated have committed are anything more than allegations.

When U.S. District Court Judge William Young, in response to a federal lawsuit alleging that crowded conditions in the jail could lead to massive rates of infection and death among inmates and staff,  and the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled that he must do so, the sheriff released 43 ICE detainees, 6 into house arrest, and 10 criminal and pre-trial detainees from the general population, the sheriff began to foment fear among the general population, and, as has been his practice, leave it up to people’s imagination and biases to come up with what his half-truths mean to them.

He released a public information tool he has named the “Prisoner Release Alert System” on Facebook and his website. It lists the groups of criminal charges and convictions against individual immigration detainees, but without any names attached or any indication even if these are actual crimes committed by actual people, it could just be a list of the scariest crimes he could compile.

On May 1, 2020, there was what some have termed a “riot” at the ICE detention Center at the Bristol County House of Corrections administered by Sheriff Thomas Hodgson when he is not off to Washington DC to be seen with Trump, appearing at Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, white supremacist gatherings to participate and give speeches, or running to any microphone or TV camera where he can promote his pro-Trump rhetoric to be seen by Trump and appear as the law and order sheriff.

Those staff members who tested positive had been in and out of the facility before being tested and could have obviously been bringing the virus in with them. Even after their doctor cleared returns, there is no telling if, in spite of not displaying any symptoms themselves, they are not carriers of the virus.

The sheriff stated that the detainees involved in the incident refused to get tested for COVID-19 after  insisting in press releases and interviews that even without a testing program in place there was no COVID-19 at his facilities and this in spite of at least 11 people on his staff who interact with the inmates in the general population and Detainees in the ICE Detention unit testing positive for COVID-19 and returning to work when cleared by doctors, even as he ignored the calls for such a program by legal representatives and social justice groups such as Bristol County for Correctional Justice, an ad hoc committee of concerned county residents.

With those 11 staff members having tested positive for COVID-19, Judge William Young had ordered the sheriff to report the results of any virus testing and to release 40 ICE Detainees in April.

Detainees and general population inmates, along with community advocates, had been requesting such testing and better conditions both at the Bristol County House of Corrections in Dartmouth and the Ash Street Jail a few miles away in New Bedford for a number of weeks to no avail, so the detainees’ reaction to the sudden command to pack their things and go to the infirmary was understandable.

Instead of asking why the detainees opposed the sudden, almost emergency conditions of the testing, the questions should be why it took so long and with so much advocacy to just get it done if not just to be in control, and why was it imperative that they be done so suddenly and at that time.

 The reaction of the inmates and the conditions that produced it should not come as a surprise.

Add to that the sheriff’s opposition to a court order demanding that inmates be tested.

A federal judge did not “respect” the sheriff’s power to his way of thinking, and had demanded testing and the release under certain circumstances of those in both facilities who were eligible.

“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.”

The sheriff insisted,

“We’re disinfecting as much as we possibly can. We are taking extra precautions. We are spraying more than we normally do. We educate the inmates about the preventive measures…. We’re doing probably more than most people would be doing on the outside. … We’ve not had any circumstances with any inmates here indicating (that they may have the coronavirus).”

“These should prioritize those with serious medical conditions, others awaiting trial for inability to pay bail, and those who have been jailed for technical probation and parole violations. Anyone who is infected with the virus should be quarantined off site, but not at home, so as not to infect family members and friends,”

the sheriff dismissed it as a merely a political agenda.

 “To make an arbitrary statement like that, without understanding the impact of it and the level of risk here versus on the outside, says it all. That’s why we are in the business we are in. We’ve dealt with this before in a prison setting. We have protocols. We make adjustments. We pay attention to the CDC. We pay attention to briefings from the White House.… As far as I’m concerned, it’s a baseless suggestion.”

“We suspect these detainees are working with outside political activist groups to use the coronavirus crisis to advance their political agenda.”

This immediate dismissal of people’s concerns and the reasonable release program was, itself, a fine example of an arbitrary decision, and the fact that he interprets it as something politically based, although there is no politics involved in addressing the virus, also would seem to illustrate that his concerns are more about politics than what is best for inmates and detainees.

“It’s encouraging that she’s had no symptoms for a week and is feeling well. It’s also encouraging that no other BCSO or CPS staff members, nor any inmates or detainees, have reported symptoms.”

 “Any headlines or press releases from political activist organization claiming infections or outbreaks are completely false and reckless.” 

“There are lawyers who represent clients in our custody that are spreading lies and rumors around the community to advance their personal political agendas in a time of national crisis.”

And then a correctional officer and a K9 officer tested positive for COVID-19 according to a press release from Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson’s office.

“Both are feeling well. They have some minor symptoms but both said, overall, that they’re feeling okay. That’s very encouraging.”

 “My staff has to come into a very challenging environment.”

“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.”

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“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.”

“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’re doing probably more than most people would be doing on the outside,”

according to the sheriff,

 “The staff here has done an amazing job in the battle against COVID-19. We’ve flattened the curve in our facilities, but we’re not out of the woods yet. The virus is still out there, and we will continue to be vigilant and careful in our day-to-day operations.”

How do you praise yourself for flattening a curve you have consistently insisted just would not exist and for which your actions may have been responsible?

The judge who had been dealing with the sheriff, his jails, and his ICE detention center, questioned the sheriff’s rosy picture of his success, considering the history of Thomas Hodgson’s actions during the opening months of the Pandemic.

The judge recently said that

“just as the increased rate of infection does not prove deliberate indifference … the absence of known infections does not disprove deliberate indifference… We are not yet out of the woods.”

And as far as ICE, the judge was concerned that,

“ICE’s insistence on opposing these bail applications on a blanket basis has led it to take some positions that are downright irrational, not to mention inhumane.”

His continued claim has been that his environment is totally under control, which is his own Schrodinger’s Cat as he is being both totally honest and not being totally truthful until someone goes inside and looks.

When the Department of Public Health took him up on his Gary Hart-like challenge to inspect, it found, among other things in relation to COVID, that seven of eight units had inadequate floor space when social distancing is recommended, there were broken air vents during a pandemic where air circulation is important in preventing the spread of an air borne virus, and that the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction’s infection control manual was out-of-date, and did not include COVID-19 specific information, in spite of his previous claims.

When the entirety of the report included more than just the positive things cited by the sheriff in a letter in the local paper, his first defensive act was to declare

 “The motto of the left-wing activist groups, abolish-ICE advocates, Prisoners’ Legal Services and plain anti-Trumpers has always been, and continues to be, ‘Don’t let the facts interfere with your political agenda,’

Meanwhile among his staff at one point who exited and reentered his facilities on a daily basis and could very well have brought the virus in, first 3 then 7 staff have tested positive for the virus.

and that those criticizing him, such as Bristol County for Correctional Justice, Unidad Latina en Accion, the Coalition for Social Justice, the New Bedford Chapter of the NAACP, the Community Economic Development Center, the New Bedford Immigrant Support Network, the Business Innovation Center, Centro Communitario de Trabajadores, the Episcopal City Mission, Marching Forward, and the Southeastern Mass Labor Council are somehow dismissible “Anti-Trumpers”

As if no one would think of looking at the whole document the sheriff   selectively presented to the public some of what was in the report:

“the judge praised the Bristol County House of Corrections for its Herculean efforts in following the CDC guidelines and places themselves at the frontlines of danger every day, unlike anyone in these vocal political activist groups. Contrary to the misleading ramblings of these groups, one only needs to actually read the words of the judge’s opinion to ascertain the truth,”

And then quoted the court decision,

“The Court acknowledges and commends the significant steps that Brisol; County House of Corrections has taken in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at that facility and treat anyone infected.”

He also included the quote,

 “The Court previously noted several protective measures that BCHOC has put in place since February, including restricting contact with outsiders, performing temperature screenings, and splitting up detainees during meals and recreation… The court recognizes the commendable efforts of the BCHOC staff, which have been operating in difficult and risky conditions where much is unknown. It is necessary to point this out given that, while the Court and the attorneys have been conferring remotely due to the pandemic, the dedicated professionals at BCHOC continue to perform their duties on site. That is no small thing.”

The sheriff is not the staff.

However, when the judge made his decision, Hodgson’s assessment of the Court decision he refers to was,

while also declaring that the judge had “far exceeded his authority.”

“I absolutely disagree with Judge Young’s decision”

He can’t condemn the decision for criticizing him and then rely on that same document to justify himself, especially when he clearly says that he disagrees with it.

The sheriff defends himself by relying on a court decision he himself sees no value in, but expects others to accept when he quotes from it in his own defense.

He is both defensive and inconsistent in his claims, his actions, and his self-defense.

Like members of the religious right condemning other people by choosing selected Bible verses to quote in support of their opinion while ignoring any that contradicts them, while he might have found and quoted certain passages in the court decision to present to the public who most likely will never see the full document, he ignores those parts that outnumber those he chose and should also be seen by the public to get a full picture.

He also applies to himself in this case, comments relating to his hard working staff, not him.

What he omits to include are the negative parts of the decision that apply to him and his leadership. The judge made many statements that criticize him for putting his staff and those under his care at imminent risk to their health and wellbeing.

Conveniently omitted statements in the decision include:

 “Nonetheless there remains critical safety gaps that establish a likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary equitable relief.  Testing of both Staff and detainees has been minimal, so the real infection rate is a mystery.”

 “A related problem is the “insufficient and ad hoc contact tracing of detainees and BCHOC staff who may have interacted with COVID-19 positive individuals.”
           

“Of particular concern is the contradictory evidence in the record regarding monitoring of those Detainees who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.”
          

 “Had the Court stayed its hand little or no progress would have been made at BCHOC towards accurately determining the virus presence among the Detainees and Staff and towards effectively separating potential carriers from others…”

“Keeping individuals confined closely together in the presence of a potentially lethal virus, while neither knowing who is carrying it nor taking effective measures to find out, likely displays deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm. That is what the evidence shows here.”

Those statements substantially modify what the sheriff refers to as praise.

Further self-serving  inconsistency is illustrated by his claim that

“Contrary to the misleading ramblings of these groups (his critics), one only needs to actually read the words of the judge’s opinion to ascertain the truth”,

And this introduces a new problem.

In order to control COVID 19 in the state, Massachusetts has Chapter 93 of the Acts of 2020 that requires weekly and/or biweekly reports of Coronavirus cases, testing, treatment, nursing facility data, cases by city/town, residents subject to COVID-19 quarantine, and data from State facilities which would include jails.

However, there is no independent group of inspectors to gather this information, but it is to be gathered by, for example, the sheriff whose COVID 19 response and acceptance leave much to be desired.

Watch the superlatives come rolling in.

With no oversight, the head of a facility making the reports could conceivably endanger the community by artful lies in the required reports.

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