Tom Hodgson just got back from another Massachusetts taxpayer-funded trip to Washington, DC which (once again) had nothing to do with his official duties. On January 11th Hodgson met with the Trump administration to (once again) try to sell Trump’s Wall.

Things may be going to hell in Hodgson’s own backyard — he has the highest prisoner suicide rate in the state, the second-highest recidivism rate, the highest rate of complaints of excessive force, and he is the subject of multiple wrongful death and human rights lawsuits — but when it comes to selling Trump’s Wall, Hodgson and the far-right groups he represents are nothing if not persistent.

On December 21, 2018 Hodgson posted a statement on Facebook condemning Congress for not funding Trump’s wall. A week later Hodgson posted a swipe at an assortment of Democrats for opposing the wall, blaming them for the death of California police officer Ronil Singh. On January 2nd Hodgson again blasted Congress for resisting the wall, and on January 4th he singled out Nancy Pelosi for her characterization of the wall as immoral. All this was done on official letterhead, likely in violation of state ethics regulations.

Hodgson watchers took note when the grandstanding sheriff announced that his right-wing rogue sheriff outfit, the National Sheriff’s Association (NSA), would be crowdfunding Trump’s wall. But Hodgon’s project folded after raising less than $100K — despite dishonest claims of overwhelming traffic — and it now redirects donors to a group called the American Border Foundation.

Hodgon’s new group should not be confused with the GoFundMe campaign that fell short of its goal but doesn’t want to return donations. That one was started by Brian Kolfage, a conspiracy nut and scamster who once duped donors eager to help wounded military vets. Kolfage’s organization is directed by a toxic crew of Islamophobes, racists and loose cannons — including Erik Prince, disgraced Sheriff David Clarke, and Kris Kobach.

In some ways, the Sheriff’s fundraising group is even worse.

Hodgson’s new fundraising outfit, now run by the American Border Foundation, is not anywhere close to its $450 million goal. Its less-than 4,000 donors have raised barely over $200K. The founder, Gary Dolan, tried wall-building before with a FundRazr campaign that raised only $12K. The fund’s managing director, Quentin Kramer has appeared on the bible show Southern Sense and on a talk show which often invokes Article IV, Sec. 4, Clause 2 of the Constitution (“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion…”). “Invasion” is a central theme of both the Trump administration and the Constitutional Sheriff’s Association (cspoa), which Hodgson joined in 2014.

The Director of Communications for the American Border Foundation is Jeremy Messina, who really ought to clean up the racist rants on his Facebook page. Messina might also want to redact his YouTube profile. Turns out, the young Trumpian is a self-identified Identitarian White Supremacist. But then Hodgson himself sits on the National Advisory committee of FAIR, which was founded by White Supremacist John Tanton. Birds of a feather. Or, as Proverbs 13:20 puts it: “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

If these pathetic donation efforts are any indication, the American public hasn’t really embraced Trump’s wall. For all the fear-mongering and hype, most people know it’s a stupid waste of billions (“show me a ten foot wall and I’ll show you an eleven foot ladder”). But the nation’s racists and miscreants love the idea, it’s become their organizing principle, and they don’t care if the whole country has to suffer for them to get it.

As for Hodgson, it’s time the Massachusetts state auditor, the Office of the Inspector General, the Attorney General, the legislature, and the various state Ethics boards began looking at Sheriff Hodgson’s abuses of his job as county jail superintendent — the letterhead, the inappropriate travel, the waste of taxpayer money — all to further a White Supremacist agenda.

Sheriff Tom Hodgson is routinely criticized for having the highest suicide rate among inmates of any county jail in the state. He has the second highest rate of recidivism in the state. He spends the least on inmate care in the state. His corrections officers have the highest rate of complaints of excessive force in the state. Hodgson has been faulted for excessive absences, for political grandstanding instead of doing his job, and for accepting kickbacks from a phone vendor. He’s fighting four wrongful death suits, a lawsuit for abusing mentally ill inmates, and one for illegal detention and deprivation of Constitutional rights. The Attorney General wrote a letter calling for an investigation of his facilities, but otherwise there has been absolutely no effort from any branch or office of Massachusetts government to hold the sheriff accountable.

Hodgson doesn’t care for public scrutiny. Whenever he is accused of abuse, neglect, or mismanagement at his jail, Hodgson whines that political opponents are out to get him and cites his 100% A+ perfect score from the American Corrections Association. The sheriff recently penned an editorial in the New Bedford Standard Times, trotting out the claim that “the BCSO is nationally accredited by the American Corrections Association, which gave us a perfect 100 percent score on our most recent inspection that looked at everything from security procedures to health care and everything in between.”

Public officials who refuse to do anything about Hodgson’s abuses may want to believe that his loudly-proclaimed accreditations are an indication that all is well in his facilities. But, like the sham award Hodgson received at the National Sheriff’s Association meeting last summer, his ACA accreditation is equally laughable — or would be if taxpayers were not paying for it.

In 2004 Prison Legal News published an article about the ACA entitled “The American Correctional Association — A Fraud on Texas Taxpayers.” The author described the ACA as:

“a non-governmental private agency that offers a veneer of respectability to those client correctional institutions that comply with the association’s volumes of published standards. After payment of the obligatory and substantial fees, the ACA’s audit teams visit client prisons and, finding at least the appearance of compliance, the ACA declares the prison to be ‘accredited.’ Prison officials hope that ACA accreditation will thwart lawsuits over conditions of confinement by prisoners. That some of the worst, most brutal, violent and decrepit prisons are ‘accredited’ by the ACA should cast doubt on whether the accreditation has any real world meaning. The ACA will not disclose if any prison or jail, after having paid the requisite fees, has failed to be accredited.”

The article goes on to fault ACA “accreditations” for secret audits, audits which ignore prisoner complaints, and questionable and improper payments in exchange for 100% A+ “perfect” ratings like Hodgson’s.

Besides offering cover for disinterested politicians, ACA audits also function as a legal shield. States which rely on the ACA to set “best practices” cannot be sued for neglect if they are making a “good faith” effort to follow some sort of standards. This has led to cases like one in South Dakota in 2007. Prisoners complained that “cells lacked adequate ventilation, lacked running hot water, the electrical wiring was substandard, the fire standards were inadequate, the kitchen conditions were unsanitary and unsafe, and the medical and dental care was grossly inadequate. Moreover, the prison was understaffed. The court held these conditions support a finding the double-celling was unconstitutional, but the defendants could move for an evidentiary hearing to seek double celling upon improving the confinement conditions.” But the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled that the ACA — a private entity — could determine prison capacity. This then undermined many of the prisoners’ complaints and hampered remediation of the horrific prison conditions.

In 2001 the Suffolk County sheriff’s department in Boston faced charges of abusing inmates and mismanagement at the facilities. The ACA director, James Gondles, was asked to participate in an inspection but declined to do so because the ACA had previously given “glowing” reviews in a previous inspection. Gondles’ refusal to revisit the Suffolk jail raised some alarms.

The Boston Globe reported that “a closer look at the accreditation program of the American Correctional Association — the trade group chosen by Suffolk County Sheriff Richard J. Rouse to investigate reports of systemic abuse and mismanagement in his department — shows that it has routinely accredited facilities beset by charges of abuse or poor conditions. The facilities include one that was put into receivership following a federal lawsuit, and another set to close this year, and others found by courts to be operating in violation of the constitution.”

Worse, the ACA-led inspection of the Suffolk jail was led by a Nebraska auditor from a corrections department under investigation by Nebraska state officials for failure to meet minimum standards of health care at his own institution.

In a 2006 academic study of ACA accreditations, the researcher reviewed criticisms of the ACA’s “standards” — “badly borrowed principles from outdated, never tested, academic theories.” Some facilities, as one cited study noted, do not adopt ACA “standards” until right before the ACA audit. Another observed that some facilities concoct policies and procedures consistent with ACA “standards” just prior to the audit, which were referred to as the “one-day shine.”

The study found that ACA accreditation did not necessarily signify a professionally managed jail. In fact, “with respect to levels of violence, riots, and fires, ACA accredited facilities are more violent than non-accredited facilities. The data showed a significant positive relationship between ACA accreditation and higher rates of assaults on staff and riots. Although inmate assaults on other inmates and assaults on staff decreased from 1995 to 2000, assaults on staff remained the same. Similarly, the ratio of riots increased between 1995 and 2000, and the ratio of fires remained higher in ACA accredited facilities than in non-accredited facilities.” The study also found the suicide rate much higher and noted that Hepatitis C, HIV, and TB testing was performed less often in ACA-accredited jails.

The Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College reports that in 2015 Tennessee’s prisons were being routinely accredited by the ACA — at an annual cost of $40,000 — but something didn’t smell right to Tennessee Congressman Mike Stewart. Stewart had heard [eventually substantiated] rumors that a Nashville facility had brought in extra staff for the ACA’s inspection, and he called the ACA accreditations “a sham” and a “rubber stamp,” citing similar problems with ACA inspections in Boston.

The Tennessee certifications came under fire for the state’s human rights abuses — and also for highlighting the cozy relationship between the ACA and the private prison corporation Corrections Corporation of America. According to a piece in PRWeb:

“ACA accreditation is based largely on documentation provided by the correctional agency being examined, and whether it has certain policies in place — not necessarily whether it follows those policies in practice. Thus, some ACA-accredited CCA facilities have experienced significant problems despite being accredited. For example, earlier this year two prisoners were murdered at CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, which is ACA accredited; CCA’s ACA-accredited Idaho Correctional Center is presently the subject of an ACLU class-action lawsuit that describes systemic violence condoned by CCA staff; and both Hawaii and Kentucky prison officials removed their female prisoners from the CCA-operated Otter Creek Correctional Center in Kentucky, which is also ACA accredited, following a sex abuse scandal in which six CCA employees were charged with sexually abusing or raping prisoners.”

As in the Arizona correctional facility above, where prisoner deaths were covered up by Corrections Corporation of America, ACA accreditations are frequently obtained or preserved by falsifying or destroying records — a by-product of the conflicts of interest that beset the ACA. “One former CCA employee [in Nevada], Donna Como, who served as an accreditation manager, candidly admitted that she helped falsify documents for an ACA audit. ‘I was the person who doctored the ACA accreditation reports for this company,’ she stated in December 2008, referring to her employment at the CCA-operated Southern Nevada Women’s Correctional Facility.”

And the rot goes all the way to the top of the ACA.

In 2013 former Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps was sworn in as the 102nd president of the American Correctional Association. Epps had been an ACA auditor for at least a decade. Only a year later the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi indicted Epps on corruption charges stemming from his receiving kickbacks from prison contracts worth over $800 million. Epps will be spending two decades in one of the facilities he ran — and audited.

Like Hodgson, the ACA doesn’t care much for public scrutiny. Prison Legal News reported that “in August 1982, David L. Bazelon, Senior Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, resigned his position as an ACA board member. In a lengthy article entitled ‘The Accreditation,’ published in Corrections Magazine, the ACA’s own periodical, Bazelon accused the organization of multiple unethical practices. The ACA, he wrote, ‘has repeatedly refused to open the accreditation process to public scrutiny and participation; the commission’s audit techniques and deliberative procedures are inherently unreliable; the commission is unwilling to accommodate constructive criticism and the possibility of meaningful change; the commission’s priorities are fundamentally flawed; [and] the commission has pervasive conflicts of interest with the facilities it is charged with monitoring.'”

In addition to corruption, conflicts-of-interest, and the secretiveness of the ACA, its accreditations are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. You can practically print them yourself. Prison Legal News noted:

“Tennessee is one of only a few states in which the entire prison system is accredited by the ACA, and as a result the TDOC holds the American Correctional Association’s Golden Eagle Award. That honor is somewhat tarnished by the fact that for two of every three years that state prisons are accredited, they self-report data to maintain their accreditation; that the TDOC makes large payments to an ACA affiliate; and that despite the TDOC being fully accredited, when conducting its technical review the ACA found Tennessee prison officials were not correctly reporting violent incidents — something that presumably should have been discovered during the regular accreditation process but was not.”

Conflicts of interest include the revolving door between the ACA, the prison industrial complex, and state agencies. The Massachusetts ACA chapter is called the Correctional Association of Massachusetts (CAM) and CAM’s executive board is virtually a Who’s Who of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, EOPS, Parole Board, and county sheriff’s departments. As state officials they authorize and sign off on ACA certifications with their right hand. But as ACA members their organization receives public funds with the left.

You, the Massachusetts taxpayer, on the other hand, are expected to simply pay the bill and pretend that the conflict of interest is nothing serious. You, the citizen, are expected to pass much more rigorous certifications in your own professional life. Whether cardiologist, lawyer, long-haul trucker, or daycare worker, the bar for you is much higher than a self-audit. And you’d lose your job if a payoff were involved.

So the next time Tom Hodgson waves his 100% A+ perfect score in your face, remember — an ACA accreditation isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

The rights to share an opinion, peacefully assemble, and protest are all protected in the Bill of Rights. They’re non-negotiable.

Yet Tom Hodgson has called for leaders of so-called “Sanctuary cities” to be arrested. One of them thought Hodgson was a “jack-booted thug” and dared him to “come and get me.” But Hodgson has also flouted a Supreme Judicial Court ruling protecting 14th Amendment rights and is being sued for everything from wrongful deaths to accepting kickbacks to abusing mentally-ill inmates. This is one bad hombre.

So it’s not surprising that someone like Hodgson, with so little regard for the law, wants to stop people from exercising their right to protest — him.

On Thanksgiving morning Hodgson got a home visit from Rhode Island immigration activists of the FANG Collective. FANG was there to protest Hodgson’s 287(g) agreement in Dartmouth, which is the nearest ICE facility for Rhode Island detainees. FANG spokesman Nick Katkevich told the Boston Herald, “I think to interrupt his holiday for 30 minutes is definitely appropriate because he is disrupting people’s lives every day.” We completely agree.

According to FANG, Hodgson called the New Bedford Police on the protesters but they were clearly observing the law and continued to deliver their message, leaving after about a half an hour in the unseasonable 16 degree weather.

Hodgson wasn’t happy with the protest, but neither he nor his talk radio buddies could manage to offer a coherent counter-narrative.

Playing the victim, and sounding an imaginary alarm — Hodgson’s great talent — he told WBSM talk show host Chris McCarthy that he felt the group was there to try to intimidate him. Speaking with the Boston Herald Hodgson said, “Any time you get groups of people together things can quickly shift into a mob mentality.” The Boston Herald (“Protests taking dangerous turn“) ignored the [actual] peaceful nature of the protest and instead imagined all the mischief that citizens who confront public officials outside working business hours could make. Constitutionally-protected mischief.

WBSM’s Ken Pittman showed his customary detachment from reality. Pittman blamed the protests on “grey haired” New Bedford “Leftist Parrots,” actually accusing them of being paid actors. Pittman was so unmoored he couldn’t even get his activist groups straight, calling the fairly youthful protestors “anarchist Bolsheviks” and making an unhinged remark about helping Ugandan children — which in retrospect can only be interpreted as a desperate plea for help with his mental health.

Two days later Hodgson was back on the Adriana Cohen show at Boston Herald Radio, this time playing less the quaking victim and more the brave gunslinger. “The minute you violate the law, we’re going to lock you up,” Hodgson told Boston Herald Radio, which rather unprofessionally reported that the Sheriff’s family had been eating their Thanksgiving meal at 9:00 in the morning when the protestors appeared across the street. Hodgson said it “wouldn’t surprise” him if protestors show up again, but he boasted he’s prepared to take them on all by himself. “I have some security of my own, through my own training.”

But protests against Hodgson and his well-documented hatred for immigrants are nothing new.

• In 2011 protesters interrupted a news conference in Boston at which Worcester Country Sheriff Lew Evangelidis, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald announced they were applying to participate in ICE 287(g) agreements.
• In July 2017 protesters interrupted Massachusetts House Republicans, including Sheriff Hodgson, with chants of “Keep hate out of our state” during their news conference to promote anti-immigrant legislation.

But Hodgson is right about one thing — the protests are only going to continue.

• In January 2017 Hodgson himself kicked off the first in a series of protests, and triggered a movement to rein in his abuses, after offering to let Donald Trump use local prison labor for his Mexico wall.
• Within weeks Bristol County for Correctional Justice (BCCJustice) had been launched.
• In July prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest conditions at the Dartmouth facility. In solidarity, BCCJustice organized a protest in front of the jail, calling for an end to abuses, which include the highest suicide rate in the state, second-highest recidivism rate, horrendous food, filthy conditions, lack of medical care, denial of prescribed medications, and the lack of accountability for the many abuses.
• In August several members of the FANG Collective staged a protest in front of the jail on Faunce Corner Road and blocked both entrances.
• In September the Boston group FIRE — Fight for Immigrants and Refugees Everywhere — protested Hodgson’s history of abusing ICE detainees at the jail, toward the tail end of a national prison strike.
• In October 40 members of BCCJustice visited the governor to demand the investigation of Hodgson’s facilities that the Attorney General had asked two Baker appointees to do.
• And on November 1st, BCCJustice peacefully picketed Tom Hodgson’s fundraiser at White’s of Westport. Again Hodgson called the police.

Again the police refused to interfere with a peaceful, orderly protest protected by the Constitution.

Let’s keep it that way.

Join Bristol County for Correctional Justice at Governor Charlie Baker’s office in the State House to again ask him to investigate abuses at the Bristol County House of Correction. Governor Baker has not responded to our certified letter delivered on Aug. 24th, so now we’ll plead our case in person! We are asking the governor to compel his appointed officials to investigate Sheriff Hodgson.

We’ve chartered a FREE bus on Thursday, October 18th:

• Pick up in New Bedford at 9 AM from Park & Ride (Mt. Pleasant St.)
• Pick up in Fall River at NY Bagel at 9:30 AM
• Return to Fall River by 4:10 PM
• Return to New Bedford by 5:00 PM

Make sure to bring your own lunch and beverages. Check for rain.

Reserve your spot on our FREE bus to the State House on October 18th. Call 508-415-8385 or 508-982-8751.

Bristol County House of Correction (BCHOC) facilities are notorious for:

• Highest suicide rate of the state’s 13 jails.
• Meals inedible and too low in calories.
• Abuse of solitary confinement.
• Denial of medicinal and psychotropic meds.
• Refusal to join in a pilot program to provide medically assisted treatment.
• Sky-high telephone rates and canteen prices.
• Unsanitary conditions, with cold temperatures in the winter and stifling heat in the summer.

We reported previously that BCCJ requested the sheriff’s travel documents from 2014 through 2018. We are concerned about the amount of time Tom Hodgson spends running around the country promoting himself and his anti-immigrant agenda while neglecting horrific conditions in his own jail.

In light of this we do not believe that the sheriff can be expected to provide humane treatment and necessary services either to the routine prison population or to ICE detainees. There have been multiple reports of abuses of ICE detainees (here and here and here) and violations of their civil and Constitutional rights. In addition the sheriff is also connected to far right hate groups, including one founded by a white supremacist.

We have informed state officials of our concerns, with no results. So in May 2018 we filed an information request with BCSO. You can obtain what we have received to-date here.

There are glaring gaps in the records, with obvious omissions. The documents we did receive paint a picture of a sheriff spending weeks every year pursuing his private agenda on the state’s dime.

We need your help going through the 574 pages of information we currently have. We are asking independent journalists and investigative reporters, the local press, the state auditor, and anyone interested, to go through the data, supplement it with your own information requests, cross-check it with actual media appearances Hodgson has made (which don’t appear in the collection), and calculate a total dollar amount that taxpayers have been stuck with for the sheriff’s many ex-curricular activities. Please contact us with anything you discover. Thank you!

Two Hate Conferences Came to Washington, D.C. Last Week

Here’s Who Attended

by Zachary Mueller on September 10, 2018, re-posted with permission

Last week the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and ACT for America, both listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center and both with ties to the Trump Administration, held overlapping conferences in Washington D.C. Despite advocates’ efforts to warn members of Congress away from participating, both featured a number of GOP House members, proving once again that bigotry has unfortunately become a hallmark of today’s Republican Party.

FAIR is an anti-immigrant hate group that was founded by white nationalist John Tanton, who helped create a network of anti-immigrant organizations — many of which are also hate groups. For this year’s “Hold Their Feet to the Fire”, an annual event, FAIR brought in anti-immigrant activists and far-right talk radio hosts from across the country to amplify their anti-immigrant messages. The conference also attracted a number of elected and appointed officials.

One of them was Ronald Vitiello, the acting director of ICE, who came to speake with far-right talk radio host Tom Roten. On the show, Vitiello defended the policy of separating families at the border and racistly characterized immigrants as the bearers of crime and disease.

At least ten Republican members of Congress participated in the conference, including Republican Senate candidate and Congressman Lou Barletta (PA – 11), Steve King (IA – 04), Andrew Biggs, (AZ – 05), Clay Higgins (LA -03), Mo Brooks (AL – 05), Louie Gohmert (TX-01), Bill Johnson (OH -06), Bradley Byrne (AL – 01), Raúl R. Labrador (ID – 01), Jim Renacci (OH – 16), as well as the candidate for Alabama’s 6th Congressional district Gary Palmer.

FAIR also helped facilitate a gathering of 49 sheriffs from across the country, including known anti-immigrant Sheriff Tom Hodgson of Bristol County, Massachusetts and Sheriff Andy Louderback of Jackson County, Texas. All the sheriffs met with Reps. King, Biggs, Higgins, and Brooks before heading to the White House for an event with both President Trump and Vince President Pence.

Louderback, at the White House roundtable discussion with Pence, called for greater law enforcement participation in immigration crackdowns. Hodgson, who sits on FAIR’s board of directors, appeared on the Two Way Radio Show to brag about how he built a immigration detention facility to detain immigrants for ICE and how his deputies would drive immigrants three and a half hours to the JFK airport for ICE. He even encouraged the White House to turn the DMV into a tool for immigration enforcement, and called for the arrest of any elected official that supports safe city policies.

Meanwhile, the ACT for America conference featured speeches from Republican Reps. Jeff Duncan, (SC-03), Louie Gohmert (TX-01), and Doug Lamborn (CO-05). Former director of ICE Thomas Homanand Texas Senator Ted Cruz both attended and accepted awards.

ACT for America is an anti-Muslim hate group whose founder, Brigitte Gabriel, stated that “every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim” and wrote in her 2006 book that Muslims are a “natural threat to civilized people of the world, particularly Western society.” ACT has continually promoted “anti-Sharia laws” and Islamophobic conspiracy theories. They also organized nationwide anti-Muslim rallies in June 2017, which attracted the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups which attended the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that following August.

On September 5th Tom Hodgson was in Washington DC giving Donald Trump an award. How does Hodgson ever find the time with so many work problems unsolved back home in Massachusetts?

With Bristol County leading the state in suicides, second-place in recidivism, receiving non-stop complaints of abuse and neglect in his facilities, and Hodgson himself spending so much time on talk radio or before the press cameras, we wondered how much time and taxpayer money the Sheriff was wasting.

Last May we requested the Sheriff’s travel records, including dates and sponsoring agencies. At the end of August we finally received a thumb drive with 574 pages in PDF format.

Much of the mundane paperwork is meal vouchers, rent-a-car bills, airfare, and hotel bills — the sheriff spends a lot of time at the Hotel Omni Shoreham in Washington DC, the Willard Intercontinental in DC, the Grand Hyatt in DC, the Hamilton Crowne Plaza in DC, The Old Town Crowne Plaza in Alexandria Virginia, and others. Hodgson’s official job may be to run the county jail, but he seems to spend most of his time on activities taxpayers are footing the bill for but know very little about.

Many of the documents we received were not responsive — that is, did not answer the question of who sponsored the trip or for what purpose the sheriff left town. Many of the travel cover sheets noted only “Sheriff’s DC trip” or contained no reference at all. Almost none of the documents received documented the hundreds of talk show radio and television appearances he has made.

Some of the documents we received had little or nothing to do with travel and simply make going through the trove more difficult. For example, we were given bills for locks, transmissions, and a floor scraper. Somebody at the Sheriff’s Office has a sense of humor.

Some of the receipts were for National Sheriff’s Association meetings — weeklong affairs in vacation locales like Mackinac Island and New Orleans. These are not quite the professional meetings the rest of us attend since they almost always feature celebrities like Trumpista Jeanine Pirro or events some taxpayers might object to, like prayer breakfasts. The NSA is more right-wing advocacy group than professional association and attendance at events like this ought to come out of the Sheriff’s campaign coffers.

Massachusetts taxpayers are also being stuck with the bill for the sheriff’s attendance at AIPAC conferences. AIPAC is a lobbying group which promotes Israeli, particularly extreme right-wing pro-Likud, interests. Again, this is something some taxpayers find abhorrent. We again ask Suzanne Bump and the State Auditor’s office to investigate the sheriff’s use of taxpayer money for no other purpose than to help Hodgson curry favor with the far-right.

One of the most sickening use of the Sheriff’s time and our tax money is his association with the far-right anti-immigrant group FAIR, the Federation for American Immigrant Reform. Started by John Tanton, a Michigan white supremacist, FAIR (along with its sister organization CIS) is at the forefront of shaping Trump’s immigration policy. Tom Hodgson sits on FAIR’s National Advisory Board along with John Tanton.

FAIR coordinates many of Tom Hodgson’s appearances. For example, the trove we received documents communications from FAIR President Dan Stein, who once said that non-white immigrants are challenging white supremacy with “competitive breeding.” GOP-connected BCSO employees coordinated Hodgson’s appearance at FAIR’s direction on on the Daily Ledger show on the conspiracy theory network One America News.

There were only a couple of FAIR events included in the returned travel documents. Hodgson has been involved with FAIR since 2011, has appeared at many FAIR and FAIR-sponsored events, and there ought to have been many more communications with groups affiliated with the Tanton network, a network of approximately a dozen anti-immigrant and white supremacist sister organizations.

One lonely little receipt showed that Hodgson met for dinner with Rockingham County, North Carolina Sheriff Sam Page, who regularly collaborates with the ultra-far-right, anti-government Constitutional Sheriff’s Association (Tom Hodgson joined in 2013 according to OCPF campaig filings). Like Hodgson, Sam Page is often found flirting with white supremacists. Here he is (above) with Michael Peroutka, board member of mass-murderer Dylan Roof’s favorite racist group, the Confederate League of the South.

We think there’s probably a lot more where this came from, but we believe the attorney general, the legislature, and the state auditor should all take a little more interest in the sheriff’s use of taxpayer money for questionable travel – and the staggering number of days each year he is nowhere to be found at the facilities he mismanages.

Spike Lee’s new film, BlacKkKlansman, opens with an unhinged racist, Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard, standing in front of a screen as D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation is projected onto his face. Beauregard laments the glory days when Anglo-Saxons were unchallenged masters of the nation, repeating several times, “We had a great way of life.” Today that lost “great way of life” has become a dog whistle for white supremacists and anti-immigrant groups alike.

Beauregard may be a fictional character, but John Tanton is not. Tanton is a retired Michigan opthalmologist who single-handedly created about a dozen white supremacist and anti-immigrant groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes most of them as hate groups because they demonize non-whites and immigrants as inferior races and cultures.

One of Tanton’s white supremacist creations is the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and one of its most vocal advocates is Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson, who sits with Tanton on FAIR’s national advisory board.

On August 20th Tom Hodgson was at the White House to celebrate Donald Trump’s “Salute to the Heroes of ICE and CPB.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protecton (CBP) have been in the news a lot — for anything but heroic acts.

But they are Donald Trump’s private deportation army, and heroes to anti-immigrant groups like FAIR and CIS, whose policies both Trump and Hodgson support.

Abolish ICE

When Elizabeth Warren, a U.S. Senator, has to walk back remarks critical of institutional racism in the nation’s police and criminal justice system, it’s another sign that we live in something uncomfortably close to a police state.

If criticizing the police is off-limits, imagine the response to calling for the shutdown of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Though Republicans have long called for shutdowns of agencies they don’t like — the IRS, DEA, EPA, OSHA, for starters — shutting down an abusive law-enforcement agency that functions like the president’s personal paramilitary force is a step too far for most Republicans.

And, predictably, centrist Democrats agree with them.

With progressive Democrats like Randy Bryce, Alejandra Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and progressiv-ish Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Kirstin Gillibrand calling for an ICE shutdown and possibly a reboot, party strategist Tad Devine sees opportunity for Centrists. For Devine, candidates like Mikie Sherrill and Andy Kim, and kinda-sorta-Democrats like Heidi Heitkamp, ought to distance themselves from, and bash whenever possible, what the New York Times calls “far left” critics of ICE. Heidi Heitkamp rolled her eyes and said “It’s crazy town,” echoing a 33-word Boston Herald article, “Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley crosses border into crazy territory.”

But shutting down ICE is not such a crazy idea.

A recent article by Jennette Barnes in the Standard Times reports that Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson is refusing to participate in a pilot Department of Corrections medically-assisted [opioid] treatment (MAT) program that five other Massachusetts sheriffs have already signed on to. The program would offer methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone to people leaving prison within 30 days. As usual, the sheriff ignores best practices by denying these treatments. Hodgson’s denial of opioid treatment to prisoners is going to get people killed — if it hasn’t already.

Currently, prisoners at the Bristol County House of Correction are pulled off drug therapy medications and must endure painful withdrawal. Upon release, prisoners may be given a single shot of Vivitrol to block opioid receptors for a month. Because of sweetheart deals with departments of correction and the National Sheriff’s Association, Vivitrol (naltrexone) has become the only treatment currently offered at $1000 a pop in Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Hamphire, and Massachusetts. There are only a few states and a handful of corrections facilities where a full range of MAT options are being used.

STAT News reports that those without treatment in jail are at extreme risk of overdosing on the “outside” because their tolerance to drugs has dropped and they reenter the world with the same triggers for their drug use. A 2013 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that, in the two weeks after release, former inmates overdose at rates nearly 130 times as high as the general population.

According to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “opioid agonist therapy with methadone hydrochloride, a full opioid agonist, or buprenorphine hydrochloride, a partial agonist, effectively treats opioid use disorder and reduces mortality.” The JAMA study found “no evidence” that Vivitrol reduced mortality. Despite the advantages of MAT treatment, the JAMA authors lamented, “opioid agonist treatment is used infrequently in correctional facilities. What steps must be taken to change the situation?”

Dionna King, policy coordinator with the Drug Policy Alliance, makes a distinction between MAT and a shot of Vivitrol upon release from prison. Vivitrol blocks the effects of opioids while methadone and buprenorphine eliminate pain, reduce cravings, often improve the health of the patient, and are strongly correlated with continuing drug treatment on the “outside.”

According to Holly Alexandre, medical director of addiction services at SouthCoast Health, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is a recommended method of opioid treatment used by hospitals, and those with this medical disorder should receive the same care in jail. With MAT, incarcerated people receive drugs like methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone, which ideally are combined with counseling and other therapies.

MAT is considered a corrections “best practice” around the world. The World Health Organization recommends MAT treatment, and a National Institutes of Health review of fourteen MAT studies found only one that did not conclusively demonstrate better post-release participation in community drug treatment programs.

And if Sheriff Hodgson could tear himself away from the microphones and cameras and make the short trip to Providence, Rhode Island, he’d see the advantages of a well-conceived MAT program.

Through an innovative partnership with actual health professionals, Rhode Island’s prisons offer MAT with buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone. The treatment program, which launched in 2016, has resulted in a 61% reduction in post-release overdose deaths. What makes the Rhode Island program so effective, according to Science Daily, is that “the treatment is administered to inmates by […] a nonprofit provider of medications for addiction treatment contracted by RIDOC to provide MAT inside correctional facilities. Upon release, former inmates can continue their treatment without interruption […] in MAT locations around the state. Patients are also assisted with enrolling or re-enrolling in health insurance to make sure they are covered when they return to the community.” Rhode Island’s program is the only one to make the full suite of MAT available to everyone entering or leaving prison. “Medications are continued if they are on them when they arrive and started if they need them upon arrival or prior to release.”

The American Medical Association says it’s unethical to deny opioid agonist treatment to patients. Ross MacDonald, medical director of New York City’s correctional health program, says that every person who enters New York City’s main jail with an opioid addiction problem represents an opportunity for treatment and the possibility of saving a life. The ACLU of Washington State is suing Whatcom County for denying MAT treatment to prisoners with opioid addictions on medical grounds.

Even Donald Trump’s President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis recommends medically-assisted treatment: “Multiple studies have shown that individuals receiving MAT during and after incarceration have lower mortality risk, remain in treatment longer, have fewer positive drug screens, and have lower rates of recidivism than other individuals with [opioid use disorders] that do not receive MAT.”

While the Rhode Island program represents a more level-headed and compassionate approach toward opioid treatment, rehabilitation is still being delivered in the state’s prisons (there are no county jails in the Ocean State). Most of these patients belong in a clinical or rehabilitation setting, not behind bars. Despite this structural defect, Rhode Island is light years ahead of our Bristol County, Massachusetts jail where Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson starves, abuses, and neglects the medical care and treatment of those who face death by overdose upon release.

We received the following letter from a prisoner at the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth.

July 26, 2018

Dear [omitted],

At this time I am incarcerated at the Dartmouth House of Corrections of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office. The whole jail has been on a hunger strike due to the injustices we are faced with on a daily basis here. Today is day two of the hunger strike and there is still no change. I am here to give you an account of what is actually going on in this jail.

I’ve witnessed inmates with severe medical issues such as epilepsy get violently assaulted by Corrections Officers. What was said by AG Maura Healey is true. They are giving inhumane amounts of time in segregation (the hole). I personally have been to the segregation unit. They took my food, all of it, and said I was running a “store.” They coerced me into taking 20 days in segregation with threats, saying I will remain there for the remainder of my time in the jail. I had receipts for all my food and they still took it. As inmates, we have few liberties, such as: food; health care; and earned good time. We don’t get any of those things.

The food we get is not enough to feed a five year old child. We get nothing but soy products with either rice or mashed/scalloped potatoes every day. Never mind breakfast: it’s either one of three things — grits, oatmeal, or tasty-ohs. Some meats that they give have hundreds of tiny little bones that break your teeth. We all put in grievances bu they said it’s just fat and it’s healthy.

To see the doctor or dentist you must put in a medical slip. By the time you are seen it is approximately 4-6 months after you put in said medical slip. This is exactly why this county jail has the highest amount of suicides. There is no health care. We inmates are supposed to be allowed to get good time, yet there are very few programs that you can actually earn good time. All of the programs that are stated online that are here haven’t been in this jail for over ten years.

For god’s sake, we sat in our rooms without electricity for two days. I don’t make commissary so when they took my few belongings it really hurt. We are humans and we are not being treated as such. Something has to change. Sheriff Hodgson is not doing his job. He is focused on building a wall at the border. Where are our programs? Where is our healthcare, and where is our food?

The injustice we face every day is inhumane and it has to be against the law. This is my testimony on the inside of DHOC. I don’t mind if you quote any of this but make it anonymous because time is hard here with constant threats by Corrections Officers.

I am due to be released on [omitted] and I am willing to do what I can to make sure no one has to endure what I’ve had to endure for over a year. Make copies of this and send it to whoever can help our cause. I hope [omitted] because reform needs to be made because DHOC is not a House of Correction. That’s why the recidivism rate is beyond compared to every other county jail in MA.

Sincerely,

[prisoner’s name withheld]

P.S.: So far the jail said they will lower the cost of commissary and make the food better because of the article in the Standard Times this morning, but only time will tell.

On June 2nd Tom Hodgson, along with 69 others chosen from 365 nominations, received the National Sheriff’s Association’s (NSA’s) “National Command & Staff College” Magnus award for “building and maintaining trusting community relationships.” Hodgson’s award leaves many of us scratching our heads wondering how high suicide rates, recidivism, and abuse of inmates merit an award with a description like this.

But a quick look at a few of the numerous recipients hints at the National Sheriff’s Association’s increasingly Trump-oriented and racist political agenda — which has nothing to do with public safety, respect for campaign law, treating inmates and the public fairly, or earning the public trust. While citizens keep asking — Why are there so many bad sheriffs? — the National Sheriff’s Association doles out sham awards to scofflaws and bigots — claiming that such men are the “best of law enforcement.”

We don’t think misconduct like the following should have earned any of these “award-winners” anything but scorn or jail time.

• Ron Abernathy, from Alabama’s Tuscaloosa County, had a wrongful death problem at his jail and wants to deal with it by suing his critics.

• The County Commission was not happy with overcrowding at the jail run by Jefferson County Alabama Sheriff (and NSA Board and Executive Committee member) Mike Hale and suggested that 300-500 low-level offenders might have to be released. Hale said he didn’t care: overcrowding be damned, inmates weren’t going anywhere.

• Grady Judd, Sheriff in Polk County, Florida, is an open-carry, arm-every-teacher advocate known for his fondness for grandstanding. Judd was sued last year for conducting unconstitutional identity checks at emergency evacuation shelters during Hurricane Irma.

• John Layton, Marion County, Indiana sheriff, is no stranger to controversy. The Indianapolis City Council authorized a quarter million dollar audit of the Sheriff’s Office by KPMG. His son, also a veteran Indianapolis police officer, was arrested for dealing cocaine in 2016. Citizens Against Marion County Sheriff John Layton has compiled a long list of questions and grievances. Apparently Sheriff Layton is not doing such a great job “building and maintaining trusting community relationships.”

• In Hendricks County, Indiana, Sheriff Brett Clark replaced in-person jail visits with HomeWav, a video visitation service like Securus. Even when family members visit inmates at Clark’s jail, they can see one another only through a video screen, not directly.

• We were relieved that Louis Ackal, head of Louisiana’s Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department and subject of a Fault Lines documentary (along with Hodgson) on jail abuses, didn’t go home with a Magnus Award. Ackal, who piled up civil rights and wrongful death lawsuits, charges of killing a handcuffed man, using excessive force on pregnant women, planting evidence, racism, corruption, calling a federal prosecutor a “son-of-a-bitch Jew bastard,” famously opined that black people “needed to be treated like animals.” What a relief the National Sheriff’s Association has some standards, albeit low ones.

But elsewhere in Louisiana the Magnum award winners were at it — abusing their communities’ trust and pocketbooks.

• In Charles Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff Greg Champagne, and National Sheriffs’ Association president (pictured above at the 2018 NSA convention with FOX News’ Jeanine Pirro), took some of his deputies to Standing Rock in North Dakota to “observe” the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, allegedly on the public dime and ostensibly to curry favor with the petrochemical industry. The Center for Constitutional Rights sued for travel documents after filing public information requests and not getting them.
• In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff Joseph P. Lopinto III‘s deputies were accused of excessive force in the death of Keveen Robinson in May. Lopinto, handpicked by Newell Normand to succeed him in July 2017, made it clear there would be few changes from Normand, including ongoing friction with the Latino community.

Continuing around the country, the Magnus awards reflected more of the same:

• Hennepin County, Minnesota Sheriff Richard Stanek served on the National Sheriff’s Association board of directors and in 2012 was the chair of Minnesota’s Homeland Security Committee. In 2012 Stanek testified before Congress about Somali gangs he claimed had an astounding 125,000 members in Minnesota, the majority in Hennepin county. Stanek was one of 10 anti-immigrant sheriffs to meet with Trump last month at the White House.
• Anoka County, Minnesota Sheriff (and NSA Board member) James Stuart is being sued by the ACLU for violating the rights of an undocumented woman who was illegally detained for ICE. Just like Tom Hodgson.
• Dechutes County, Oregon Sheriff Shane Nelson‘s employees are the focus of several external investigations of misconduct by a public servant and firearms violations. One of his captains was indicted for embezzling public funds, and Nelson himself is the subject of two additional complaints. Nelson also allegedly harassed deputy Eric Kozowski, an employee who announced he was challenging Nelson in the sheriff’s race.
• In Texas, Rockwall County Sheriff Harold Eavenson recently signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE, and met with Trump to complain about state legislation he claimed would help Mexican cartels. Eavenson was angry when the U.S. Sentencing Commission reduced the sentences for 6,000 lower-level drug offenses, and both he and the National Sheriff’s Association blamed it on “the Obama administration’s attitude toward law enforcement.”
• Michael D. Chapman, Magnus winner from Loudoun County, Virginia, was investigated in 2015 because he had allegedly “illegally obtained and published private e-mails of his Republican primary opponent and that he has illegally concealed the true source of campaign donations in his run for reelection.” In what Bristol County residents will recognize as a familiar defense, Chapman called the allegations politically-motivated “nonsense.” A fired detective sued Chapman for intimidation, Chapman also made a video for FAIR, an anti-immigrant hate group.
• Like Tom Hodgson, Spokane County, Washington’s Ozzie Knezovich is a man drawn to simple answers for complex problems. In 2017 he blamed school shootings on the media, bad child-rearing — everything but the ease with which guns can be acquired. Knezovich was charged with violations of campaign laws for using his employees as props in campaign ads. Knezovich, like Hodgson, blamed Barak Obama for a supposed “war on cops.”
• Sheriff Eric Severson, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, signed onto a 287(g) program with ICE, despite calls from over 10,000 members of his community to refrain from doing so. So much for “building and maintaining trusting community relationships.”