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.

In his statements concerning that event at the Bristol County House of Corrections, the Bristol County sheriff, Thomas Hodgson, has stated that the detainees involved in the incident refused to get tested for COVID-19.

The sheriff has been insisting in press releases and interviews that even without a testing program in place there is no COVID-19 at his facility, 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.

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.

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

Detainees and general population inmates, along with community advocates, have 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 their reaction to the sudden command to pack their things and go to the infirmary is understandable.

BCCJ is in possession of a letter written and signed by a number of inmates listing the lack of serious steps being taken to control the spread of the virus in the sheriff’s facility.

There were no masks, no social distancing, and no soap or hand sanitizers unless the inmate purchased them at the canteen. No money, no hand sanitizer.

Demands for testing went back to the beginning of March.

The sheriff’s representation after the May 1 incident that the inmates opposed being tested is verifiably false.

The testing was not the issue.                              

Timing, speed, and the need to pack their things for removal were.

The Detainees’ opposition stemmed from the sudden need to be tested quickly, the possibility of being removed from their unit where the tests could already have been done, and being placed in solitary confinement.

The question that should be asked is why it took so long to administer those tests, and why the sheriff found 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 there for non-violent offenses, just days away from release, or were there only because they could not meet bail for minor offenses.

Since the spring of 2017, when the sheriff tried to make points with Trump by volunteering inmates in his facilities to help build the wall on the Southern Border, Bristol County for Correctional Justice has written letters to the Massachusetts governor, the Attorney General, various state and local elected officials, as well as to local media, had meetings with people from the offices of the Attorney General, and local state senators and representatives to present their concerns and recommendations about conditions in the sheriff’s facilities, and in October 2018 brought the concerns of inmates and detainees directly to the State House where they spoke to people from the offices of the governor, the Attorney General, and the State Auditor who all said they would pass the information on.

Sadly, conditions in both facilities did not improve, there was no follow up, and the warnings about the condition went ignored.

During the time of COVID-19, BCCJ continued to bring attention to conditions at the facilities especially in regard to the lack of addressing the virus seriously and, while claiming that there was no COVID-19 in his facilities, the sheriff’s not testing inmates or detainees.

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The sheriff continually insisted that the court order was unnecessary because there was no COVID-19 in his jails, but without testing, what is the basis for this claim other than not wanting to know if the virus was actually in the population and presenting a false image of control.

After the May 1, 2020 incident, the federal judge ordered the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office to test immigration detainees and staff members as ICE Detainees are under federal jurisdiction. 

In his decision, Judge William Young said,

“I require everyone be tested, from the sheriff on down,” 

That includes around 600 staff members as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. 

He also ordered the sheriff’s office to trace possible contact between COVID-positive staff members and detainees.

The sheriff reacted in his usual way by attempting to protect his power and self-assigned importance by responding,

 “I absolutely disagree with Judge Young’s decision,” 

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

As he had done at his press conference the day after the May 1 incident where he claimed any criticism of him by lawyers, other elected officials, especially those not in his political party, and civil justice advocates was merely a political attack on him, the sheriff wrote in a statement that the judge had expressed “his personal dislike of immigration policies” in the court opinion.

He went on to claim that testing his staff members was “invasive and unnecessary” testing violating their constitutional rights.

Hodgson has asked the Department of Justice for an emergency stay while the judge’s order is appealed to the First Circuit Court.

Hodgson has also claimed that the judge decision and activists have “encouraged unrest” in the facility, accusing immigration activists of using corona virus as a pretext to release all immigrant detainees.

That is also an obvious lie to distort the truth as advocates like BCCJ have not advocated for the blanket release of all Detainees, only those who were not arrested for having committed any crime but were in the wrong place at the wrong time, like at work when ICE raided the place, or had been pulled over for a minor offense like speeding and missing a court date and, upon it being discovered they were in the country with no papers, were turned over to ICE as is the established procedure even in Sanctuary Communities where local law enforcement does not do the job of ICE at local taxpayer expense by actively seeking out undocumented residents.

But the sheriff has traditionally represented all those in ICE detention as being hardened and dangerous criminals to justify his holding them and to present himself as the only thing standing between safety and terror in the community,

When making his decision after the incident, Judge Young expressed surprise that detainees had not been tested before May 1, calling it “deliberate indifference”.

Hodgson will be required to provide regular updates about testing and report on contact tracing for those staff members who tested positive. ICE will foot the bill for the tests as these are its Detainees being held on county property, not county Detainees.

Meanwhile the Office of the Inspector General at the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, is conducting an investigation of itself by itself, while the office of Attorney General Maura Healey, the state Senate’s Post audit and Oversight Committee, and the Massachusetts congressional delegation in DC are calling for an independent investigation.

In his press conference after the incident the sheriff referenced a tape of it, but has said it would not be released until after the incident is investigated, again by himself and ICE.

Throughout all of this, the sheriff has acted as if, in spite of being an elected official accountable to the public, he is an independent entity who cannot be questioned in thought, word, or deed, and has displayed his displeasure when people call him on possible misconduct, such as inmate abuse, high recidivism rates, and the highest number of suicides, both attempted and completed, in his facilities in comparison to the other county jails in the state, and his claiming that what he says about undocumented residents and his characterization of them does not need to be backed up by facts and statistics because, in his mind as stated in interviews, his opinion is a matter of communal common sense, while many in the community have disagreements based on facts and statistics.

His usual response, as it was this time, is to claim there are political enemies constantly attacking him and in doing that hoping to distract the people of the county from seeing what goes on with him and in his facilities.

He hopes that by getting sympathy for being seen as the victim, he can victimize those in his care without being questioned.

If the tapes can exonerate him of any wrong doing in the incident of May 1, 2020, his reluctance to release them to the public, other elected officials, and the press until he and ICE review them is questionable at best.