The original, outdated Bristol County jail was built in 1829 as a very up-to-date addition to the then existing part of the jail built when John Quincy Adams was president and was then totally replaced in 1888 because it eventually lost that title. The newer building was added on to when Grover Cleveland was president, and in 1920, when Woodrow Wilson was president, the jail got a dining hall, so inmates no longer had to eat standing up in the yard.
As it is used by the Bristol County Sheriff’s department to house inmates with proximate court dates, it is the oldest continuously running jail in the United States.
Lizzie Borden was held there in 1893 during her trial and acquittal, and, because she was important, the door to the cell she occupied is now among the collection at the Old Dartmouth Historic Society, the mother organization of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Certain changes were made to upgrade the jail as time went on with the introduction of indoor plumbing, implementing the 1983 court order to add toilets in some cells finally in 1984, and ending public hangings, but the building is old and shows its age.
In recent years, the Ash Street Jail has been getting a lot of attention as concerned citizens have been calling for closing the outdated jail.
Before the recent calls began, in 1937, former FBI agent and Bristol County Sheriff Patrick H. Dupuis called the jail “antiquated and a menace” to the welfare of inmates and wanted it replaced. The most recent former sheriff’s predecessor had included the closing of the Ash Street Jail in planning for the new Bristol County House of Corrections campus in Dartmouth completed some thirty years ago. After moving on to the state legislature, he was replaced by a political appointment who spent his many years as sheriff profiting from the position financially and politically and wishing in the worst way, as Pinocchio did to be a real boy, to be a Western style sheriff in a place that had no use for that type of figure.
As part of his tough guy image the new sheriff then incorporated his overt racism and anti-immigrant animus in his outdated, old-school ways of tough guy law enforcement ignoring the facts that supported the closing, choosing instead to label those members of the Bristol County community who gave reasons to support the closure as unpatriotic, anti-law enforcement, pro-criminal, Socialist, outlaw sympathizers who were out to get him for his political beliefs making their complaints personal and political. In spite of the 1937 proposal of Sheriff Dupuis, the most recent former sheriff also dismissed calls for closure as some new, radical, anti-whatever-the-sheriff-believes-in movement, stamped his feet and held firm.
This was the same sheriff who, after an investigation by office of the state’s Attorney General determined the sheriff and his policies and practices had violated the civil and human rights of inmates while making recommendations for remedying the situation, at a press conference he called when the report was released demanded to know who the Attorney General, his boss, thought she was to tell him what he needed to do.
She is now the governor.
The original determination for disclosure was made over 85 years ago. It was not new, radical, or a personal attack on the then sheriff.
Having read the room wrong, he was ousted by the people of Bristol County he thought were in the minority but who voted in the majority for the person who ran against him.
Unlike the previous sheriff who dug in his heels, pouted, and refused to even give the impression he would look into things even as he had no actual intention to, the new sheriff has decided to at least look into whether or not it would be the right thing to do in closing the jail. The possibility is there that closure would save on the cost of utilities and upkeep while exposing the inmates held there to needed programs only available now at the Dartmouth campus, and consolidating resources.
The two options to accommodate the closing would be reconfiguring the now closed ICE detention center which would actually be too cramped for the 100 or so inmates that would be housed there as opposed Ash Street, or killing two birds with one stone by modifying the unused 9,600-square-foot gymnasium that would cost less than redoing the ICE building for 100 inmates, and with a high gym ceiling would accommodate two levels of cells, while the ICE detention center could be refitted as the House of Correction’s training academy eliminating the cost of having personnel trained in a rented facility, saving $144,000 per year.
Of course, in spite of good intentions, besides the possibility that a feasibility study may come to a different conclusion than the one expected, there is still the chance the state will decide to maintain the status quo and leave things as is.
It could take up to six months to arrange the funding of the study at the State House if legislators accept the idea and another 12 months to perform the study with the overall project being completed within the next five years.
Rather than the stomping of a foot and a toddler’s, “no I don’t want to”, seeing a study of the issue is in no way a political or personal attack, the new sheriff is at least open to looking in to closure and determining the feasibility of it without getting defensive and protecting the jail because despots, even county ones, hate to lose any part of the territory they rule.
Unless there is an election, that is.
The old guy could have done this with no intention of following through and look good enough to keep.
The new sheriff made a campaign promise and seems to be carrying through on it.
Even if he were faking it, it does give a good impression.
The people were right.
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.In case you want to remember why or compare.
