I have written before about the Sheriff of Bristol County, Thomas Hodgson, and how his jails are not houses of correction but of horrors, his questionable activities and book keeping, his insulting attitudes toward people here for a better life but without papers, the number of suicides and the amount of recidivism in his jail, and his self-congratulatory claim his facilities are examples  of how to prevent COVID in closed environments.

His most notorious response to those who expressed caution about jail conditions during the pandemic based on investigation, documentation, and testimony of former inmates, was to dismiss concerns with,

     “I wouldn’t much entertain or care about what the social justice groups think about my staff. “

This, for those who didn’t catch it, is the tactic he learned from his idol, Trump who, not wanting to deal with racial equity, mainly because his actions show he doesn’t support that, attempted with a surprising degree of success to get people to dismiss the concerns of people of color, and make it all about a fictitious an attack on the troops. In the sheriff’s case, while people criticise his running of his facilities, he tries to get people to think the criticism is of his staff so people do not look at his actions, but waste time defending his staff from a non-existent attack.

When the pandemic began and social justice groups and individuals were advocating for precautions that the sheriff would be wise to follow for dealing with the potential for COVID running rampant throughout the Bristol County House of Correction, especially the release of non-violent offenders and people who were incarcerated pre-trial having not been able to pay bail, and those whose post-sentence release was imminent, the sheriff dismissed any outside advice and suggested actions with,

“We have no current plans to release inmates in the manners you described. 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.”

Later adding,

 “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).”

And when people insisted that he follow the selective release program set up early in the pandemic because the closeness of inmates could make his facilities a viral incubator, he countered with,

 “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.”

Well, it seems that in spite of his Trumpian deflection and denial, going by a recent investigation by the Department of Health, the social justice people may have been right as it was found, among other negatives, 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, making his claim that,

“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.”

more than weak.

He accidentally let it slip that things were not up-dated when he said,

“We’ve dealt with this before in a prison setting. We have protocols, because it was found he had been following those old, outdated protocols that did not deal with COVID 19.”

There was, indeed, overcrowding with seven of eight units having “inadequate floor space.”

Along with this, the investigation found clogged and out-of-order sinks and toilets, mold growing on a kitchen ceiling, missing floor tiles, dangling light fixtures, and broken air vents.

Broken air vents during a pandemic where air circulation is important in preventing an air borne virus.

Food was not being appropriately covered and the facility was not being cleaned as often as necessary nor was equipment kept in a good state of repair.

Some of the information in letters and testimonies of former inmates about conditions such as inmates not having access to clean drinking water and hygiene products may have been overstatements. but removing the cherry on the top of a cupcake does not remove the cake.

When the sheriff handed over documents, something his history shows he often delays, or even forgets about so people are denied important information about his facilities, it was found that the PDF files sent to DPH’s Bureau of Environmental Health, which contained a variety of email correspondence and other documents relating to COVID-19,  were poorly organized.

In spite of, and effectively, cancelling out Sheriff Hodgson’s defense that,

“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,”

claiming experience trumps all, that experience explanation gave way to self-defensiveness when the sheriff’s spokesperson explained  that the building was designed and constructed in 1990 in compliance with the standards at the time, and subsequently over the years the state has required the facility to run double bunked and has granted occupancy waivers annually for many years by the Department of Corrections and DPH, which is irrelevant in light of the sheriff’s claims when refusing to adapt to the present COVID situation,

“We make adjustments.”

When it came to food safety violations for food not being appropriately covered, the facility not being cleaned as often as necessary, and equipment not being kept in a state of good repair, the Spokeperson explained that

“The violations found in the kitchen are minor and will likely be found in any large-scale industrial or commercial kitchen. Our kitchen makes and serves thousands of meals every day, runs 24 hours a day on all three shifts and has roughly 50-60 people working in it daily…Any equipment they found not working was repaired and most of the violations were corrected on site right in front of the inspectors.”

“Right in front of the inspectors” seems less like an admission of proper behavior than admitting  having to do something in front of the people who caught the offense.

Ignoring the sheriff having said,

, “We have protocols. We make adjustments. We pay attention to the CDC,”

the spokesperson explained that prior to the pandemic, the manual which had no changes since its last update in 2017 and outlines steps and action to take on the flu, H1N1, AIDS and other communicable diseases because

“there was a separate COVID protocol that was constantly changing and evolving as CDC, DPH, and others kept adapting their recommendations and guidance. Typically, we add new sections to the infection control manual after the acute phase has passed because of the frequency of changes and updates.”

One would think someone would have written the protocols down if he insisted they were being assiduously followed.

Since the inspection and report, in what can only be seen as a Herculean effort to do it, and in spite of its having to have been done at the beginning of the pandemic when social justice individuals and groups first recommended updated protocols be followed with the sheriff claiming they were, the spokesperson also pointed out, as if it were a good thing, that, the most recent CDC and DPH guidelines and the onsite medical director’s approved COVID protocol have now been added to the facility’s infectious disease manual.

This having not been done in the 3.5 months from the beginning of the pandemic to the inspection while all that time concerned people both on the inside and the outside of his facilities demanded it, reveals the sheriff’s wholesale acceptance of Trump’s medical pronouncements and his lack of concern about conditions in his jails and the inmates subjected to them.

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Bristol County for Correctional Justice sees the results of the DPH investigation into complaints about the House of Correction as evidence that Hodgson has lacked a coherent plan to combat the coronavirus in spite of his many bold pronouncements

In a press release, BCCJ also criticized the crowding, maintenance and cleanliness issues saying,

 “While these conditions come as no surprise, they are still dangerous, unsanitary and unacceptable.”

Even though he presented a maverick, controlling, macho, Trump like resolve when claiming initially,

“We have no current plans to release inmates in the manners you described. 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?”

the sheriff’s publically presented and often repeated tough guy resistance-fighter image was deflated somewhat when people saw that in spite of the showboating, up to 47 immigrant detainees had been quietly released as the result of orders from a federal judge in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.

Our Bristol Count Ozmandius is not the tough rebel image he likes to project, and, of course, like a grammar school kid who finds a way to strike back and deflect while appearing to be a he-man, Hodgson launched the Prisoner Release Alert System that lists the criminal histories of the ICE detainees that have been released, and said,

“America’s sheriffs took an oath to protect their communities from harm, and these judges are undermining that oath and putting our families and friends at risk by releasing prisoners across the country,”

While state law prevents him from mentioning names or attach any specific person to any particular crime as 52% of his inmates are pretrial, many to be found innocent, he used this to hide behind the generic nature of the list could very well be simply a list of the worst crimes committed by anyone and not necessary related to those released, and allow readers to make assumptions even if they are completely in error.

Hodgson may have reached his Joe McCarthy having a list of 200 names moment.

Also during the pandemic, 49 inmates and 43 staff members have tested positive for the virus, and at the time of the DPH inspection, the Bristol County House of Correction went from a high of 800 to 500, with this not only due to pandemic related law enforcement policies, but also on the state having enacted a criminal justice reform law.

When the inspectors were there they saw clogged and out-of-order sinks and toilets, mold growing on a kitchen ceiling, broken air vents, dangling light fixtures and missing tiles, along with food not being appropriately covered and the facility not being cleaned as often as necessary and equipment not being kept in a good state of repair, yet the only defense is that the inmates break everything and that people are just being meanies.

It is, therefore, a reasonable question to ask that if these conditions were there when the inspectors were, what are conditions like when outsiders are not there or a warning has not been given of an impending inspection.

Even though DPH, in response to a reporter’s questioning if the types of violations are routine or serious, said that the state typically does not categorize violations, and will allow the report to speak for itself, the sheriff’’s spokesperson ignored this and tried his own Bill Barr approach saying,

“Any issues the DPH found are very minor and the inspection also presented an opportunity for the DPH and the BCSO to dispel many of the lies and other outrageous claims left-wing political activism groups keep peddling in the media and on social media”.

Which it didn’t, unless the sheriff’s department feels that no matter how bad jail conditions might be, they could be worse.

The report also brings into question and answer the relevant ones asked why, when  Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey called on the secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to investigate the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office citing concerns about suicides and allegations of “harsh or unhealthy” conditions at the two county-run jails,  referring to stories by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting that ran in The Boston Globe and on WGBH radio, and lawsuits filed against the sheriff’s office for segregating mentally ill inmates for long periods of time, denying services, and exposing them to harsh conditions, saying that these suits were consistent with reports from her office’s Civil Rights Division about issues related to “inadequate mental health screening and treatment, denials of medical care (and) unsanitary condition,” Hodgson claimed in characteristic terms that investigating him based on documents presented to her, an investigation that had the possibility of clearing him and silencing critics was just

 “rank politics on the part of the AG. She ought to be ashamed of herself.”

While denying realities and refusing to do what he should have while claiming a group of sheriffs, not a neutral third party, who evaluate each other’s job performance think he is doing great, he falsely claimed,

“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.’”

However, it would appear from the majority of the DPH these “left-wing activist groups, abolish-ICE advocates, Prisoners’ Legal Services and plain anti-Trumpers” were the ones pointing out the facts he consistently ignored.

In like manner, when advocates addressed releasing non-violent ICE detainees that had not broken any law beyond being here without the proper papers, the sheriff’s spokesperson released a statement saying,

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

And, as Corona virus began to show up at the house of corrections and people’s concerns were being validated, a press release stated,

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

Even after the report was released, the sheriff’s office released a statement saying,

“These falsehoods are spread in the Letter to the Editor section of The Standard-Times by these political groups, so this inspection report gives us another opportunity to dispel this politically motivated and hateful misinformation campaign directed at Sheriff Hodgson and the correctional professionals of the Bristol County Sheriff Office,”

Again, the BHCSO throws the staff under the bus as no one is criticizing the staff, but the sheriff who sets policies and programs, and directs the staff to follow them or else.

The public has been right, perhaps not totally so, but, clearly from the DPH report, more right than a sheriff who denies observed realities in favor of hiding behind his staff and the good points in the report for which he obviously takes credit according to his spokesperson, while ignoring the majority bad parts dismissing them as mere politics meaning there will only be cosmetic changes while the welfare of those under his care and are often dehumanized can look for more of that.