The ACLU’s FOIA request yielded communication between the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) and the Office of the State Auditor, which in 2018 conducted a performance audit that noted the BCSO’s (1) failure to reimburse the state $350K until it was caught; (2) failure to update its per-diem custody and care rate for ICE; (3) failure to file inmate total cost reports; and (4) failure to properly document travel records.

The Auditor was asked to look into suicide rates at the jail and her field auditors did. But they looked at only two years of suicide data — 2016 and 2017. It would have been better if the Auditor had used more thorough, accurate and statistically meaningful data, such as that collected by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, which looked at Massachusetts jail suicides from 2006 to 2016.

The BCSO, in fact, had 20 years of data and offered numbers for 2013 forward, but it would have been work to compare it to other counties in the state because there is no formal mechanism in Massachusetts government (other than a FOIA request or an audit) to collect mortality data from state correctional facilities. Neither the Massachusetts Department of Correction nor the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association collects, much less publishes, such data for public or research. So, for the first time ever by an agency of the state, it was up to bean counters to look at jail suicides while doing a financial audit.

In citing Bureau of Justice (BJS) statistics to Auditor James Moriarty, Jonathan Darling compared BCSO suicides with national averages. According to the BJS report Darling cited, “the suicide rate in local jails in 2014 was 50 per 100,000 local jail inmates. This is the highest suicide rate observed in local jails since 2000 (table 4).“

Having chosen the highest national rate to compare with his jail’s suicides, Darling wrote:

“As you can see, even when we had a spike in 2016, we were still well below the national average. The narrative in the media is how evil Sheriff Hodgson is, when it really should be how great Massachusetts Sheriffs are.”

But several of the families whose loved ones committed suicide on Hodgson’s watch didn’t think he was such a great sheriff. They have filed wrongful death lawsuits.

If you want to verify the BJS data Darling cited, it can’t be done. Bureau of Justice Statistics “Deaths in Custody Reporting Program” (DCRP) data is collected by RTI International, a research group originally founded by USAID. OpenSecrets shows 80% of RTI’s corporate principals are connected with a lobbying firm, Cornerstone Government Affairs, otherwise known as the Pentagon’s lobbyist. The data — even “sanitized” and stripped of personal identification — may simply not be accessed by the public:

Due to the sensitive nature of the data and to protect respondent confidentiality, the data are restricted from general dissemination. These data are enclave-only and may only be accessed at ICPSR’s location in Ann Arbor, MI. Users wishing to view these data must first contact NACJD, complete an Application for use of the ICPSR Data Enclave (available as part of the documentation for this study), and receive permission to analyze the files before traveling to Ann Arbor.

But it doesn’t matter now. DCRP data has not been updated since 2014 and it appears that the Justice Deparment under Trump has stopped collecting it.

Sheriffs love accountability — for everyone but themselves. But because of the secretive and undependable availability of federal jail death statistics and a lack of public reporting by the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association or the state Department of Correction, the only way to get the data is for Massachusetts legislators to mandate the monthly collection and publication of detailed mortality statistics from DOC prisons and county jails.

Let’s see the data.

The National Sheriff’s Association — the organization that represents rogue sheriffs like Sam Page, David Clarke, and Tom Hodgson and which celebrates the abuses of Customs and Border Patrol officers — has a soft spot for animals. Yes, the NSA actually endorsed legislation on animal cruelty, arguing that there is a link between animal cruelty and cruelty to humans. And we would not disagree.

But the sheriffs didn’t seem to appreciate the irony of defending puppies while torturing humans in the county jails they themselves operate.

Not to be out-done by the sheriffs’ hypocrisy, Donald Trump signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT) last month, giving rights to animals that he refuses to extend to Central American children in his concentration camps.

But concern for animal rights while simultaneously showing indifference to human suffering is also a feature of Massachusetts law.

Massachusetts has animal cruelty statutes which provide for up to seven years in prison for the abuse of animals. In 2016 the Attorney General charged ten people with the mistreatment of over a thousand animals on a farm in Westport. All were allowed to plead guilty and serve probation, which outraged animal rights groups. When it comes to humans, the AG’s office has a civil rights division but has not similarly intervened in behalf of prisoners suffering and dying in the state’s jails.

The rights of dogs and cats in the Commonwealth have a leg up — actually four legs up — on the rights of their human counterparts. According to the Massachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title XX, Chapter 140, Section 137C:

“The mayor of a city, the selectmen of a town, the police commissioner in the city of Boston, a chief of police or an animal control officer may at any time inspect a kennel or cause the inspection of a kennel. If, in the judgment of such person or body, the kennel is not being maintained in a sanitary and humane manner or if records are not properly kept as required by law, such person or body shall, by order, revoke or suspend the license for the kennel.”

That’s right. Kennels may be freely inspected by public officials if conditions are believed to be unsanitary or inhumane. This is a right that not even state legislators have in Massachusetts “corrections” facilities.

For dogs, state law likewise regulates confinement:

“No person owning or keeping a dog shall chain or tether a dog for longer than 5 hours in a 24–hour period and outside from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., unless the tethering is for not more than 15 minutes and the dog is not left unattended by the owner, guardian or keeper.”

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. “No excessive solitary” for dogs is written into Massachusetts law — while mentally-ill Bristol County prisoners are going to have to wait for the courts to decide if the overuse of solitary confinement is legal.

Under Massachusetts law a dog must be given adequate space to move, and environmental considerations (heat and cold) are strictly regulated. Specific types of inhumane treatment are prohibited:

“(1) filthy and dirty confinement conditions including, but not limited to, exposure to excessive animal waste, garbage, dirty water, noxious odors, dangerous objects that could injure or kill a dog upon contact or other circumstances that could cause harm to a dog’s physical or emotional health;

2. taunting, prodding, hitting, harassing, threatening or otherwise harming a tethered or confined dog; and

3. subjecting a dog to dangerous conditions, including attacks by other animals.”

No such protections exist for the safety and well-being of humans confined in Massachusetts jails and prisons.

Finally, it boggles the mind that “inhumane” is the word chosen by people to describe mistreatment of animals — but not of fellow humans who “deserve what they get” in prisons that “are not country clubs.”

But there is a solution. By simply re-designating jails as “kennels” — a name change prison rights advocates point out already describes the inhumane conditions in state prisons and jails — human prisoners in Massachusetts will finally receive the legal rights their four-legged friends already have.

Emails were not the only product of the ACLU’s FOIA request to the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO). Eventually, the BCSO had to cough up travel documents and Tweets as well.

When the ACLU asked for Twitter records from accounts @Sheriff_Hodgson and @BCSO1, the Sheriff’s Office initially tried to avoid producing the documents by changing the account handles to @SheriffHodgson and @BristolSheriff. But ACLU counsel threatened to sue. So the BCSO responded like grownups with grainy, low-quality screenshots of a surprisingly small number of private communications.

But rather than discussing programs for rehabilitating his prisoners — surprise! — Hodgson’s private Tweets were almost all about scheduling media appearances to spread his anti-immigrant gospel and to market his own “brand.” And the many free media opportunities Hodgson was (and is) given to develop his “brand” represent nothing more than unreported “in-kind” campaign contributions.

The majority of Hodgson’s Tweets were to and from local radio station WBSM 1420, which features mainly right-wing bloviators like Barry Richard, Ken Pittman, Howie Carr, and Chris McCarthy. And they were all from radio host Chris McCarthy — whose job it is to feed Hodgson stories to comment on:

Tom should see this ASAP (23 Jan 2017)

McCarthy strokes Hodgson’s ego by comparing him to the president:

The Sheriff and you as his media person changed the national conversation in the way only a President can usually move an issue. Tremendous job. (28 Mar 2017)

McCarthy passes along an article by Howie Carr lambasting acting U.S. Atty. William Weinreb for Hodgson to read:

Jonathan- Howie wanted to make sure TH saw this column (4 May 2017)

McCarthy then directs Hodgson to an interview he did with Michele McPhee, who has just been a guest on his show — before he discusses it with Hodgson:

J – I interviewed Michele McPhee about her book on the Marathon Bombing yesterday. She discusses UMass Dartmouth and the bombing and I hope you can share this with Tom. She names a UMD professor. (15 May 2017)

We learn that, besides Jonathan Darling, BCSO legislative liaison Brock Cordeiro also handles Hodgson’s media work. Hodgson does not simply do radio interviews, he has a radio schedule:

Hi Chris, I’m out of the office this week. Brock is handling this stuff and has his radio schedule for the next few days. Give him a hollar at brockcordeiro@bcso-ma.org or send him a facebook message. Good luck — Jonathan (23 Jun 2017)

At Hodgson’s request, Darling suggests to McCarthy that he give Hodgson a regular spot on his show:

Hi Chris, Congrats on the new show. Sheriff asked me to get in touch. He mentioned you wanted him to come on sometime. Right now, our best bet is a call in tomorrow or an in-studio on Tuesday or Wednesday. Also, if you want to set something regular up, say every Friday or every other Wednesday or the first Thursday of the month or whatever, we’re open to that as well. — Jonathan (3 Jan 2018)

McCarthy acknowledges the amount of work they do together:

Jonathan – we do enough together to have you call or text me – my number is 781-308-5662 – send me a text when you have a moment so we can communicate rapidly when needed. Thanks

Remember those unreported “in-kind” campaign contributions.

Sometimes McCarthy tries to elicit information or get Hodgson to speculate on local politics:

Thanks – I’m hearing the same thing. I understand the Commies at the Coalition for Social Justice are going to run SEIU organizer Lisa Lemieux in the special. (2 Feb 2017)

and

Off the record: Have you heard anything about Jill Ussach running for the open NB Ward 3 CC seat? (2 Feb 2017)

Darling replies:

Hi Chris, Consensus of some of the clued-in folks around here is she’s no doubt interested, but if she actually pulls the papers and runs is another story.

In another Tweet Darling refers McCarthy to an order form for a t-shirt a local group produced for its visit to the governor to lobby for an investigation into Hodgson’s abuses:

Hey Chris. Tom wanted me to send this to you: He can’t wait to get a t-shirt: bccjustice.wordpress.com/2018/09/29/baker-is-the-new-orange (1 Oct 2018)

But Hodgson is a self-appointed expert on everything from Iran to marijuana. Darling offers Hodgson as an anti-marijuana spokesman:

Hi Chris. Sheriff was interviewed by the herald today about that stoned kid who hit the school bus in Gloucester. Just wanted to let you and the other radio guys know he’s available to take the anti-weed side if anyone’s interested. Thanks, and merry Christmas. — Jonathan (21 Dec 2016)

At one point McCarthy sends Hodgson a private text about New Bedford City Councilman Hugh Dunn’s letter to the state legislature on marijuana dispensaries — to feed Hodgson answers for a forthcoming interview:

I sent TH a text with the letter NB CC Hugh Dunn sent to the state legislature asking them to change the law on local control. This story is going to be big and I wanted Tom to have all the information in advance of the media. (1 Jun 2017)

Darling replies:

Awesome. Thx Chris. We will be ready for it when it hits. (1 Jun 2017)

Darling sends sheriff A. J. Louderback a photo of himself with Trump — under the assumption Louderback loves vanity photos as much as Hodgson:

Sheriff, I thought this was a nice picture. It’s from the Associated Press from Friday’s meeting. Catch up soon — Jonathan. (14 Jan)

Darling sends McCarthy a Tweet thanking him for Hodgson’s chance to vent on his favorite topics:

Hi Chris, just wanted to follow up and say thanks for having the Sheriff on this morning. Trump, immigration, Elizabeth Warren … he was in heaven. Anytime you want to chat again on Herald of BSM, just drop us a line …. thanks, Jonathan (1 Dec 2016)

McCarthy returns the compliment, sending Hodgson a link to a press release from Hamilton Strategies:

Jonathan, I just spoke with the Sheriff and scheduled him to call in to Boston Herald radio this Friday morning at 7:20am to discuss this press release: hamiltonstrategies.com/news/open-letter… (14 Dec 2016)

A word on Hamilton Strategies.

Hamilton Strategies advertises itself as a “mission-driven, full-service communications firm serving Christian non-profit organizations” which exists to: “connect ministries with media, engage Christians in the culture and inspire all to share the miracle of Jesus Christ throughout the world.”

Hamilton Strategies is also a propaganda center for Islamophobia and Homophobia.

McCarthy’s item for discussion is the interfaith celebration of an “Anti-Hate” event at the Islamic Society of Boston. Hamilton Strategies has issued a press release blasting liberal Jews and Christians who attended the event, including Marty Walsh and Elizabeth Warren, and has. accused the Islamic Center of being a “terror-linked, Saudi-funded radical mega-mosque.”

McCarthy also wants to link the Islamic Center with a terror attack [that never happened] on a mall in Attleboro. Once again McCarthy feeds an article to Hodgson like somebody fed SAT answers to Felicity Huffman’s daughter:

There is a section in the press release that mentions a planned machine gun attack on a “mall in Attleboro, MA” which we will be asking about. counterjihad.com/terror-experts… (14 Dec 2016)

The author of the article for discussion is Paul Sperry, part of a “Counter-Jihad” network with connections to every Islamophobic organization in America.

Thanks, ACLU. Keep the FOIA requests coming.

The nation’s right-wing sheriffs flock to the White House for vanity photos of themselves, often captured in embarrassing thrall to the President.

Among the many White House emails returned from the ACLU FOIA request, there are at least fifty that include photos of Tom Hodgson in rapt attention to the stirring insights of Donald Trump, who is sometimes pictured holding a photo of his border wall.

These taxpayer-funded photo-ops are meat for the President and manna for the sheriffs. But sometimes even the dozens of photos offered by the White House are not enough. Here Hodgson’s media guy Jonathan Darling is found begging for more:

Tom Hodgson is not friend of the truth — even when it comes to stories of his own father.

On April 18, 2013, halfway through the Obama Administration, a group of eight senators known as the Gang of Eight stood before cameras in a Senate conference room, confident that their immigration reforms would shortly become a reality. At precisely the same moment in another room, Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (named for both a Confederate president and general) had organized a parade of county sheriffs, including Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson, to lobby against the reforms as a gratuitous “amnesty” for “criminal aliens.”

When it was his turn at the microphone (set up by Session’s aide, Stephen Miller), Hodgson painted a picture of five million people patiently waiting in lines outside American borders to become citizens — and another twelve million dangerous, criminal aliens living among us, “disrespecting” American laws. Hodgson invoked his Anglo-American heritage: “My father immigrated from England, and he raised thirteen children here.” Hodgson later told PRI: “My father didn’t walk around the streets hiding every time a police car came by, put his head down or what have you. My father came the right way.”

Hodgson went on to blast undocumented immigrants as filthy, disease-ridden burdens on their communities: “Illegal immigrants are creating public health hazards, public safety concerns,” Hodgson said, “living in homes, one-room apartments with three families, taking mattresses off the streets that are infested with bedbugs, filling our emergency rooms for lack of a better care and costing the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars.” The Gang of Eight’s immigration reforms were scuttled.

But Hodgson was not only lying about immigrants — but also about his “model immigrant” father.

Actress Tina Alexis Allen, Hodgson’s youngest sister, published a memoir in 2018. Her story of family trauma and recovery is hers alone to tell. But “Sir John” Hodgson, as he insisted on being called — the sheriff’s father, Knight of the Holy Sepulcher, Vatican courier, a man who carried four passports and racked up half a million miles a year in travel — is a central character in both Allen’s memoir and in Tom Hodgson’s mendacious narrative of immigration done the “right way.” Allen’s recounting of her father’s immigration to the United States and how a fourteenth Hodgson child immigrated to the United States reveal her brother the sheriff’s narrative as nothing but a tale woven out of whole cloth.

From Allen we learn that her father “Sir John” claimed to run the War Office in British-mandate Palestine as a 24 year-old and that he became an American citizen — not by waiting in line or immigrating the “right way” — but by courting and eventually marrying an American nurse two years older than himself and wrangling a transfer to Washington DC. That nurse, a native of New Bedford, MA, not only gave “Sir John” a sure path to citizenship as a male “war bride,” but her family connections in Bristol County helped pave the way for her son Tom to burrow his way into the county’s political establishment.

Matt Cameron, a Boston immigration attorney, disputes historical revisionists like Tom Hodgson who claim there is an equitable and orderly immigration line. “Where is this line? Where does it start? How long is it? Are there bathrooms?” Cameron points out that, thanks to overtly racist policies before 1965, Anglo-Saxons like Hodgson’s father were always preferred. “You can whitewash your own family history all you want, but it’s always been this way.”

It also helps if you’re a rich white man who can game the system with high-level connections.

In 1954 — when Tom Hodgson was three months old — “Sir” John Gerard Hodgson and Anne Marie Hodgson adopted a 10 year-old Anglo-Arab orphan named Victor Charles Joyce, the son of an Army comrade of Hodgson’s, and a child who did not qualify for naturalization under existing immigration quotas.

While the elder Hodgson could have made his adoptive child wait in line until it was his turn, “Sir John” instead used his connections with U.S. Maryland Senator John Marshall Butler, who like himself was a virulent anti-Communist, and whose campaign Joseph McCarthy managed. Butler officially notified Arthur V. Watkins, Chairman of the Senate Immigration and Naturalization Subcommittee on the Judiciary, that he had filed a private bill for Hodgson. From the Congressional Record:

Dear Arthur: on June 23 I introduced Senate bill 3652 at the request of Mr. and Mrs. John G. Hodgson, American citizens residing in Maryland at 5 East Irving, Chevy Chase, Md., for the purpose of bringing their adopted son, Frances Timothy Mary Hodgson, age 11 years, from the Franciscan Orphanage in Jerusalem, Jordan, to the United States of America.

“At the time of adoption, it was assumed that the adopted son be charged to the Jordan quota and could enter the United States under fourth preference of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which is at present open. When petition was filed, birth and baptismal records showed that the boy was born on June 13, 1943, in Nazareth, Palestine, which city is now in the State of Israel. The fourth preference for the State of Israel is oversubscribed and bill S.3654 has been introduced to permit Francis Timothy Mary Hodgson, adopted son of John Gerard and Anne Marie Hodgson to enter the United States under the fourth preference quota for the Jordan Kingdom as he has resided in Bethlehem and Jerusalem since shortly after birth in Nazareth. Records show the boy was baptized in Bethlehem (Jordan) July 5, 1944.”

The bill was not drafted to provide a non quota visa but it was felt that as the adopted child resided in Jordan all his life, that he could be charged to the Jordan quota.

On August 19, 1954 Hodgson’s private bill quickly moved from one express line to another in the U.S. House of Representatives (relevant portions of Congressional Record here) — a professional courtesy for a fellow “Anglo Saxon” immigrant.

Interestingly, Butler went out of his way to argue that this special legislation for Hodgson was not really an effort to bypass immigration quotas, but that the boy had lived in a formerly Jordanian part of Israel “all his life” — a kindness Tom Hodgson today is not prepared to extend to DACA recipients.

When asked to help place this maneuver in historical context, immigration attorney Matt Cameron noted that “today’s closest analogue might be the Special Immigrant Juvenile process, a fourth-preference visa available for minors who were abused, abandoned or neglected by one or more parents (many are orphans). As with the fourth-preference beneficiaries from Israel, SIJ from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador (the countries which have benefited by far the most from the program) is seriously oversubscribed and wait times are now well over two years.”

“Given that this process is available for qualifying individuals up to the age of 21, I would guess that hundreds of SIJ-eligible people have been locked up in Hodgson’s disgrace of a jail over the years and deported either before they had a chance to apply or while waiting ‘in line’ for a visa in the same category as the one that his family had no problem manipulating to their benefit 65 years ago.”

Travel records the ACLU received from the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office feature the same sloppy paperwork and potential abuses of taxpayer money that a State Audit warned of last February and which Bristol County for Correctional Justice (BCCJ) found in documents from its own FOIA request last year.

BCCJ has previously called for a forensic audit of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office — not just because two of its officers were convicted of federal money laundering charges in the “Godfather” case — and not merely because the sheriff is now being sued for receiving kickbacks from a phone vendor.

Tom Hodgson has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant and forfeiture money that were intended to be used for opioid treatment — and now we learn that he has never written a single email relating to MAT treatment — and that he lied to the public about his communications with other sheriffs at a 287(g) hearing last April.

One reasonable conclusion is that the Sheriff’s Office is simply pocketing the grant money and using it to subsidize ICE agreements which actually lose money for the state.

And we’ve said this before, too: the sheriff is using large sums of taxpayer money to fund a private war on immigrants — a war designed by and coordinated with white supremacists within and down the street from the White House. All while neglecting the rehabilitation of prisoners in his jail.

The ACLU’s information request proves it. Their FOIA request shows hundreds of Tweets and emails between White House and anti-immigration zealots, including 74 with the White House’s resident white supremacist, Stephen Miller — but nothing related to helping people with opioid use disorder.

If you believe in math, this is a ratio you can’t ignore.

And then there’s the sheriff’s travel — again. In 2017, shortly after the Trump inauguration, Hodgson spent almost two weeks in Washington, DC and in his hometown of Chevy Chase, Maryland. The hand-written cover sheet attached to his travel invoices states that the Sheriff was attending the PREA Conference (the National Prison Rape Elimination Act Resource Center Conference).

This sounds plausible enough — since no one ever really bothers to scrutinize sheriffs’ expenses — until you find that the Massachusetts Department of Corrections indeed convened a PREA Conference that month, but it was at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel — that’s Boston, not DC — and that Bristol County Sheriff’s Office CEO Lawrence Oliveira attended it, not Hodgson.

So what was Hodgson doing in Washington, DC for twelve days between January 30, 2017 and February 12, 2017? The Sheriff’s Bank of America statement shows him staying at some pretty swanky places in the nation’s capital. And he didn’t even send us a thank you.

Absent any oversight of the sheriff’s finances — and absent any thorough audits — this would have gone undetected if not for the ACLU’s FOIA request.

Was Hodgson visiting family, taking a winter vacation, huddling with his white supremacist buddies at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, meeting with the Trump administration, or what? And why were Massachusetts taxpayers once again footing the bill?

We just don’t know. And Hodgson’s deceptive record-keeping certainly doesn’t shed any light on the truth. It’s hard to imagine what sort of pressing county business requires a county sheriff to spend two weeks in luxury hotels in Washington, DC.

Two decades of friendly “performance” audits by the state have failed to improve Hodgson’s record-keeping habits or stop his abuses of taxpayer money. Once again we call for a forensic audit of the Bristol County House of Corrections.

For over two years Bristol County for Correctional Justice has been hammering away at a painfully obvious truth: Sheriff Tom Hodgson is neglecting the job voters elected him to do — caring for and rehabilitating prisoners — at the expense of his collaboration with white supremacists.

Recent disclosures of responsive documents from a FOIA request the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) made to the Bristol County Sheriffs Office (BCSO) last March prove just how true that contention is.

In the ACLU’s repository there are literally hundreds of communications between White House officials, including dozens from White Supremacist Stephen Miller and demonstrating coordination between Hodgson, the White House and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Hodgson’s real and only focus. Yet even though a majority of Hodgson’s prisoners have substance abuse disorders, his office could not provide a single email or Tweet documenting a shred of concern for helping prisoners with medically-assisted treatment (MAT).

The ACLU archives make for pretty interesting reading. Hodgson’s slavish, unctuous attempts to ingratiate himself with the White House are exposed in 74 emails to Stephen Miller. We find White House talking points that Hodgson receives, and we see Hodgson notifying Miller that he’s been a good boy and used them in various interviews. We see his pettiness in action as he blasts New Bedford representative Tony Cabral, the Immigrant Assistance Center, and — as Yvonne Abraham reported in the Globe — Hodgson even removes information cards on ICE from the back of his own church, St. Julie’s in Dartmouth, and dutifully reports it to Miller. And although the ACLU did not request Hodgson’s correspondence with FAIR, he CC’s fairus.org in emails with Miller and Britt Carter, Associate Director of the White House Office of lntergovernmental Affairs. The ACLU’s trove of documents follows the release by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of extensive correspondence between Stephen Miller and a number of white supremacists.

All Hodgson’s efforts paid off recently when he was rewarded with a White House doggy bone — honorary chair of Trump’s Massachusetts re-election campaign.

Last April members of BCCJ attended a so-called “public hearing” on ICE 287(g) agreements and the topic of medically-assisted opioid treatment came up.

Hodgson has received several large grants for opioid treatment, so the public is entitled to know what he’s doing with all the money — a question that still must be answered. In addition, under Section 98 of Chapter 208 of the Acts of 2018, five sheriff’s offices have started piloting MAT treatment of prisoners — Hodgson isn’t one of them.

At the 287(g) hearings Hodgson offered a number of excuses for not offering treatment. The worst was that his officers — now serving as state-paid, part-time ICE agents — can’t afford ten minutes to supervise the treatments.

Currently, prisoners now receive a spritz of Vivitrol — a drug Alkermes already gives National Sheriff’s Association members a “taste” of for free.

Needless to say, BCCJ was not satisfied with Hodgson’s response and on September 23, 2019 we began trying to get better answers to what kind of MAT treatments, if any, the BCSO and its medical contractor provided. We contacted Beth Cheney, the Chief Operating Officer of Correctional Psychiatric Services (CPS), to ask what sort of treatment CPS provides prisoners in Bristol County.

In response, Cheney sent us a link to an article about the sheriff’s pilot program — the very program Hodgson and CPS refuse to participate in. Cheney also directed us to Jonathan Darling, the Sheriff’s spokesperson, for authorization to speak to CPS. So we did — and Darling passed the buck back to CPS:

“If you feel that CPS is not answering your questions, that’s an issue between you and CPS.”

In October we tried again, telling Darling that the “public would be well-served by knowing what types of MAT treatment the BCSO currently offers its prisoners.”

On October 22, 2019 Darling agreed — but he never followed up:

“I agree, I think we can do a better job at sharing with the public about our Mat and substance abuse programs. I’ll be working to update our website with more information on this. I believe you’ll find your answers there in weeks ahead.”

But the ACLU was also interested. On March 18, 2019 the ACLU requested the following from the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office:

8. All records of any request, decision, or recommendation by BCSO to participate in, or not to participate in, any pilot program for the delivery of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder at county correctional facilities, including under Section 98 of Chapter 208 of the Acts of 2018.

9. All records concerning the formulation or preparation of any request, decision, or recommendation described in paragraph 8, above, including without limitation any discussion of the reasons for such request, decision, or recommendation

The responsive documents the ACLU received to the request show that — while Hodgson was emailing Stephen Miller and numerous White House and anti-immigrant organizations almost daily — there was absolutely no correspondence regarding medically assisted treatment. None. Zero.

On May 29, 2019 — more than two months past the required 10 day window for response to FOIA requests — Hodgson’s office replied to the question of MAT treatments:

“No records exist that are responsive to this request.”

So on August 20, 2019 the ACLU’s legal counsel at Foley Hoag LLP wrote back to the Sheriff’s Office to obtain information the sheriff refused to divulge.

Among the many non-responses to the ACLU’s FOIA request, the BCSO had refused to provide records from the sheriff’s supposedly “personal” Twitter account.

The ACLU also disputed the BCSO’s contention that no records existed on MAT treatment because the Sheriff had made a public statement about collaboration with other sheriffs at the aforementioned 287(g) hearing on April 10th:

At the BCSO’s annual 287(g) steering committee meeting held on April 10, 2019, Sheriff Hodgson publicly announced that the BCSO will not implement the pilot program established by Section 98 of Chapter 208 of the 2018 Acts, and will, instead, continue its current practices for treating inmates for opioid disorder. ‘ During this meeting, Sheriff Hodgson made a number of statements that suggest he and/or the BCSO have records concerning this decision. For example, he stated:

• “The sheriffs all met not too long ago — a few months back — and collectively we decided, for those that were going to decide to use medically-assisted treatment, that there would be a sampling of four or five sheriffs who were going to do it to see how it goes. Medically-assisted treatment is very controversial with regards to the types of medication that have to be given. For example, when somebody is on a medically-assisted treatment program, there are certain medications where it takes ten minutes per person to have that medication dissolve in their mouth, and they have to watched by a person on our staff until it is done.”
• “We have probably the most difficult county when it comes to detoxing people for drug use.”
• “I am not going to institute a program that’s going to have people come to jail who want to get off drugs, be exposed to more drugs. Because if you can’t go to jail to get off drugs, I don’t know where you’re going to go to get off drugs.”
• “We aren’t going to institute programs that we don’t know [are] working yet, as are a number of other Sheriffs, until we know it works.”

Accordingly, no later than September 10, 2019, please: (1) confirm whether records responsive to Requests 8 and 9 exist and produce any such records; (2) confirm whether any documents responsive to Requests 8 and 9 are being withheld on the basis of any assertion of privilege; and (3) provide a description of what, if any, searches the BCSO undertook to identify records responsive to these requests, including the sources and custodians BCSO searched and any date ranges and/or search terms that it applied.

The BCSO replied on September 20, 2019, offering the following explanations to Foley Hoag and the ACLU:

• “… the Sheriff’s Office states that Sheriff Hodgson is referring to a Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association Meeting (‘MSA’). any records of decisions made, if any exist, would be records of the MSA.
• “… Sheriff Hodgson’s statements refer to his decisions to not institute medically-assisted treatment in its entirety. The decision was not reduced to writing and, thus, no record exists …”

Apparently Hodgson didn’t have time to jot anything down. He was too busy being a White House errand boy.

On September 27th, the same day Tom Hodgson was giving the president an award in Washington, DC on the taxpayer dime, one of his prisoners died.

Scott Lajoie’s death set another gruesome record for a sheriff who seems to have no interest in his day job. Already leading the state in suicides and coming in a close second on both recidivism and assaults by correctional officers, Hodgson’s jail now comes in second with three times the state average for pre-trial detention deaths.

Since January 2019, 13 people have died in pre-trial custody. That’s an average of less than one per county.

Hodgson’s death count is already up to three.

You can download the full Courtwatch report here.

Following two more suicides at the Bristol County House of Correction this summer, there has been another death at Tom Hodgson’s jail.

While we do not yet know if the cause of death was suicide or an untreated medical issue, it is important to remember that each of these deaths has a human face.

Scott LaJoie, 49, was the father of five children and a grandfather of seven. He was an Army veteran, a musician, and ran a concrete forms business in Westport. On September 27th LaJoie was transported from the jail to Saint Luke’s hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His family has asked that donations be sent to Disabled American Veterans.

LaJoie’s death occurred while Sheriff Thomas Hodgson was in Washington DC giving President Trump another award. A 2017 suicide at the jail also coincided with a flurry of anti-immigrant lobbying in Washington by Hodgson.

Following LaJoie’s death, his case in Fall River District Court (docket #1932CR002613) was dismissed by Judge Kevin J. Finnerty because LaJoie died while never having gotten his day in court. LaJoie had been locked up without even the possibility of bail pursuant to Mass General Laws Chapter 276, section 58A.

While Sheriff Tom Hodgson has the highest suicides and the second highest recidivism rate in the state, not to be out-done Bristol County District Attorney Tom Quinn has the highest per capita number of 58A hearings and the second (just behind Essex County) total number of 58A hearings in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, according to Massachusetts Trial Court data. Democrat Quinn has also lobbied for even more draconian provisions in the Dangerousness statutes in concert with Republican Governor Charlie Baker.

Court records tell us that LaJoie had been prescribed various medications. In an April 4th, 2019 entry in docket #1932CR001197, Judge Franco Gobourne allowed LaJoie’s motion to see a doctor to get a prescription refilled. It is unclear whether LaJoie ever received those medications. A physician from SouthCoast Health specializing in medical and pharmaceutical management offered condolences.

While it’s too early to say if LaJoie’s death resulted from jail conditions inducing despair, medical neglect, or the absence of medically-assisted substance abuse treatment, LaJoie’s death is the consequence of overuse of pretrial detention by District Attorney Thomas Quinn and Bristol County judges who rubber-stamp his motions, subjecting prisoners to abusive conditions in the Bristol County Jail.

Court records tell us that LaJoie was locked up in June 2019 when his bail status on an earlier case (docket #1932CR001197) was revoked and prosecutors asked the judge to keep him locked up pursuant to Mass General Laws Chapter 276, section 58A (“Dangerousness”) based on the argument that LaJoie was so “dangerous” that no conditions of release could ensure the safety of his girlfriend, Rebecca Campbell.

Campbell had accused LaJoie of threatening to burn down the apartment they shared. As a result, LaJoie was arrested and [incorrectly] charged with an assault on Campbell — and with violating a “no abuse” order issued by the court. The earlier case was dismissed on the trial date, July 16, 2019, when Quinn’s office was unprepared to go forward with a trial. Nevertheless, LaJoie remained locked up on the new case (docket #1932CR002613) as a “danger.”

Attorney Sean A. McDermott was then appointed to represent LaJoie. McDermott did not file a single motion in the case and on the pretrial conference report simply checked off a few boxes. So much for zealous legal representation.

LaJoie’s case was scheduled for trial on August 26, 2019 but was continued to September 24, 2019, and then again to October 25, 2019. One can only imagine the despair of a person repeatedly denied bail and kept in perpetual detention without a trial ever in sight.

On September 27th, 2019 Scott LaJoie died at the Bristol County Jail.

The Mass Bail Fund is looking for additional volunteers to post bail for prisoners at the Bristol County jail. There will be a meeting in Dartmouth in November for those with time to give. Posting bail is the perfect volunteer gig for people with some privilege to put to good use. Email us if you’re interested.

The Mass Bail Fund doesn’t post bail of more than $500. A substantial percentage of those in county jails have not been convicted of a crime but cannot meet even a small bail amount. Click here for more information on how the Bail Fund works — but here’s the short version. You’ll get a call at an inconvenient hour. And when you show up to bail out your client, the Bristol County Jail will make you jump through more hoops than most; you’ll have to wait, come back later, or go to a different location. You’ll front the money for the Bail Fund, drive the client off the jail premises, and get your money back from the Bail Fund in roughly a week.

Anybody is welcome to volunteer, but if you’re older, whiter and a member of a religious organization you will magically get better results for your client. You’ll be doing your part to reduce mass-incarceration right in your own community.

Consider this. The inability to post bail can make a prisoner:

• more likely to lose their children to DSS
• more likely to lose their job, plunging their family deeper into poverty
• more likely to plead guilty just to get out of abusive conditions
• more likely to receive harsher sentences because of the inability to easily access legal resources
• more likely to be found guilty

Email us to discuss attending the Bail Fund’s Dartmouth meeting in November.

Whenever I encounter a story about police abuse it almost always involves white cops and black or brown citizens. If not the police, it’s courts, prisons, or immigration authorities. You don’t have to be particularly perceptive to recognize the dominant factor in all these stories; you just need a long memory and a filing system. Racism permeates every aspect of American life — especially the criminal justice system and, most especially, the police.

So it was no surprise last week, when Scott Hovsepian of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police (MassCOP) blasted Elizabeth Warren for referring to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as a “murder.” With black men having a one in a thousand chance of being fatally shot by police in their lifetime — two times the rate for whites — there is really no other word that suits this extreme indifference to life but murder. We are in fact so indifferent to these killings that police shootings aren’t even tracked by a government agency.

Delicate ears may prefer the phrases “wrongful death” or “unauthorized use of force.” But who are we kidding? Even when the evidence is crystal-clear that a police shooting was completely unnecessary and violated any number of departmental policies or protocols, officials will rarely admit to a mistake and instead trot out a legal doctrine known as Qualified Immunity which effectively gives policemen a license to kill — even when they have previously exhibited bad judgment, have psychological problems or a history of violence toward the non-white public. Even when the officer lies. Even when there is a video.

Hovsepian’s angry letter to Warren went out on August 10th:

“I want to make this as clear as possible and every member of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police wants you to understand; your labeling of law enforcement as racist and violent is unacceptable and dangerous. Maybe I didn’t deliver the message strong enough the last time we spoke. YOUR POLITICAL PANDERING FOR PRESIDENTIAL VOTES IS GETTING POLICE OFFICERS AND CITIZENS HURT AND KILLED. […] Your inflammatory rhetoric results in the erosion of relationships that members of law enforcement have developed within our communities. […] Graham v. Connor 490 U.S. at 396-97 (1989), provides in part: The ‘reasonableness’ of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene…”

Unacceptable and dangerous. For a moment, a reader might be excused for thinking Hovsepian meant the national epidemic of police officers slaughtering black men, two thirds of them unarmed. Hovsepian mentions Qualified Immunity as a police officer’s shield from charges of murder in the second degree — “acts that demonstrate extreme indifference to human life.” But it’s not police killings that we ought to be worried about, says Hovsepian — no, it’s public criticism of the police that is killing officers. Or so he says.

A year ago at Dillard University, Hovsepian took issue with Warren’s characterization of the entire U.S. criminal justice system. Warren said that “the hard truth about our criminal justice system: it’s racist… I mean front to back.” Hovsepian labelled Warren’s characterization “cancerous rhetoric” and again charged that criticism of police was lethal: “Your statements put each and every one of us in danger. Your statement dehumanizes every officer who puts on a uniform…”

Playing the part of the wronged and “dehumanized” party may be nothing but a rhetorical ploy, but it is precisely the same argument as Tucker Carlson’s claim that White Supremacy is a hoax because white people are the real victims of the American legacy of slavery.

Last week the Washington Post reported that, “among men of all races, ages 25 to 29, police killings are the sixth-leading cause of death, according to a study led by Frank Edwards of Rutgers University.” In 2018 police killed 1,164 people. The number of black people killed by police (215) exceeded all police officers who died in the line of duty (148), servicemen killed in action (2) and Americans killed by Islamic terrorists (0) combined. There were only 23 days in 2018 when police did not kill someone. Thirteen of the 100 largest police departments accounted for a large percentage of police murders that year. 99% of all police killings never resulted in officers being convicted of any charges. In 2018 Americans were ten times more likely to die from being shot by a cop than in a mass shooting.

So, if anyone has a legitimate and “reasonable fear,” it is civilians fearing police violence. Americans are also increasingly afraid of militarized policing that is morphing into something very like occupation. Following the protests of Michael Brown’s murder, police turned Ferguson’s Canfield Drive into Fallujah.

While no doubt there are many good police officers and police departments, from the 30,000 foot view Warren is absolutely right. The names of black victims of police abuse, from Rodney King to Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald, and Michael Brown, just keep being etched on headstones. We know what skin colors predominate among America’s 2.5 million incarcerated people. The legacy of slavery is apparent to anyone who has studied criminal justice issues or simply reads the newspaper. The Central Park Five, whose story was recently portrayed in Netflix’s “When They See Us,” embody everything that is wrong with America’s racist criminal justice system — police misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct and overreach, brutal prisons — even an ad from a future president that read like a call to lynch five young men of color.

MassCOP’s Scott Hovsepian has it completely backwards when he charges that criticism of police racism puts officers at risk and undermines their work. It is racist cops who undermine community confidence in police departments and contribute to a community’s fear of helping police reduce crime. No matter how many public relations campaigns, youth programs, listening sessions, or ride-alongs police departments use to blunt community criticism, nothing compensates for all the damage that racist officers inflict.

Take the case of 20 year Muskegon, Michigan police officer Charles Anderson. Anderson put his house on the market and apparently didn’t think to put his KKK application or his Confederate flags away. A black couple touring the home realized the officer was a racist and dug into Anderson’s history, discovering he had been cleared in the fatal shooting of a black man in 2009. It wasn’t a surprise. The killing or the exoneration.

Or a story from August 6th describing Galveston, Texas cops leading a black man, slave-style, between the mounted officers’ horses. Police chief Vernon Hale weakly explained, “Although this is a trained technique and best practice in some scenarios, I believe our officers showed poor judgement in this instance.” Poor judgment that went unpunished.

Sergeant Heather Taylor, a member of the St. Louis Metro police department, was interviewed recently by CBS News as part of its series on racial bias in American police departments. “Do you think that there are white supremacists on the police force?” CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues asked. “Yes” Taylor replied. “You didn’t even pause,” Pegues said. “Have you seen some of the Facebook posts of some of our suspended officers right now?” Taylor responded. “Yes.”

Taylor could have been referring to Facebook posts collected by the Plain View Project, which to date has permanently recorded over 5,000 racist posts — that’s from only eight cities. The Project’s homepage says that “our concern is not whether these posts and comments are protected by the First Amendment. Rather, we believe that because fairness, equal treatment, and integrity are essential to the legitimacy of policing, these posts and comments should be part of a national dialogue about police” — a dialog shut down by police officials who claim that such a discussions put their lives at risk.

Blue Lives matter to police officers, but the same concern doesn’t aways extend to civilians — especially the black lives. In 2016 an Oregon police officer posted an image of a Black Lives Matter protest with a comment, “When encountering such mobs remember, there are 3 pedals on your floor. Push the right one all the way down.”

The Facebook page of Santa Fe, New Mexico Sergeant Troy Baker, also the police union president and a police cadet instructor, was a veritable cesspool of racist and homophobic rants, violent threats, and Confederate flags. Baker survived an internal investigation when no violation of department policy was determined, and he was allowed to retire early, remaining on the city payroll for eight months to obtain his pension.

Springfield, Massachusetts cop Conrad Lariviere thought white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. running down Heather Heyer in Charlotteville was pretty funny. “Hahahaha love this, maybe people shouldn’t block roads,” Lariviere wrote on Facebook. When confronted with the post, Lariviere told MassLive.com, “I am not a racist and don’t believe in what any of those protesters are doing, I’m a good man who made a stupid comment and would just like to be left alone.”

Lariviere was eventually fired but the damage was already done. “It will take us months, if not years, to earn back the level of public trust we once had,” Police Commissioner John Barbieri said. “It’s never easy to terminate a fellow officer, and I take no comfort in doing so.” But Lariviere’s union, Local 364 of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, issued a statement saying it was —

“extremely disappointed in the decision of Commissioner Barbieri to terminate the employment of Officer Conrad Lariviere. Officer Lariviere’s comments on Facebook were made in his capacity as a private citizen […] While some may find Off. Lariviere’s comments to have been insensitive, we do not believe that they rise to the level of misconduct, and certainly do not warrant termination, even if there was a clear policy involved […] We also believe that the subject of the Facebook posting was a matter of public concern, and protected speech. We believe that the termination is based on political considerations, not a fair, impartial assessment of the evidence…”

Racist conduct and exercising poor judgement are, for many police associations, insignificant matters for officers charged with serving the public fairly.

In Phoenix, Arizona, 75 cops were caught on Facebook bashing Muslims, African-Americans, gays, and feminists. When Trayvon Martin was murdered, Phoenix officer Joshua Ankert wrote, “CONGRATULATIONS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN!!! Thank you for cleaning up our community one thug at a time.” Officer Dave Swick posted a roadside sign that said, “Ferguson protestors ahead, speed up, aim well.” Police dispatcher Christina Begay shared a picture of two cops laughing with the caption: “They said, ‘F–k the police,’ so I said ‘F–k your 911 call, I’ll get to your dying home boy when I finish my coffee.” Officer David Pallas posted a meme showing the Quran, with a caption that read: “HOW ABOUT BANNING THIS. IT OFFENDS ME!!” The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association defended the posts. “People — including cops — say things they regret.”

Add to a climate of hate the many unfortunate interactions between police officers and young people. Stop and Frisk — violations of the Fourth Amendment — go by many names: “community engagement,” “meet and greet,” “youth liaison.” But they only add to the fear, distrust and hatred many people have of police officers. In New Bedford a young man, Malcolm Gracia, is dead because police officers decided to aggressively “engage” a group of young men at Temple Landing after seeing what they thought was a “gang handshake.”

After allegedly stabbing an officer, Gracia was shot three times in the back and once in the side of the head. But the entire interaction should never have happened. “Even on the [police] version of the facts, the stop would be unlawful,” Judge Thomas F. McGuire Jr. wrote in a memorandum on a civil lawsuit filed by the victim’s sister. The City of New Bedford for many years claimed that the incident had occurred because of insufficient policies on “engagement” with youth. After the ACLU filed several FOIA requests, the city’s argument collapsed. Police should have simply followed the law.

But it’s not just a few bad apples or the frequently-cited lack of clear policies. As we saw in the case of Santa Fe, New Mexico, departmental racism often reflects, and is even encouraged by, the leadership of police unions and associations who represent tens of thousands of officers.

Consider Hovsepian’s Brother in Blue, Ed Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, New York City’s second largest police union. Only last week Mullins shared a video made by white supremacist Colin Flaherty (author of “Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry”) that calls black people “welfare queens,” “scam artists” and “monsters.” The film uses Trump-styled language:

“When a suspect chooses to flee from police, it is never for anything good,” the narrator says. “When a suspect flees a car at night in the projects, it can only be for something incredibly bad. One of the most astonishing aspects of police work in an urban environment, is the fact that almost literally no one has a job. The section 8 scam artists and welfare queens have mastered the art of gaming the taxpayer. Bounce from baby mama to baby mama, impregnate as many women as possible. She gets the welfare benefits, and you get the flop house benefits. Symbiotic.”

Mullins, nose freshly rubbed in his own white supremacy, uttered “I have black friends, white friends, Asian friends. I wouldn’t want to insult anyone. I don’t think one incident defines who I am.”

Or consider the nation’s largest group of sheriffs, the National Sheriff’s Association, which once sponsored its own crowdfunded border wall donation site but has now outsourced it to the American Border Foundation (ABF), an organization managed by white supremacists and supported by armed militias. (After months, ABF has raised only $222K of its $450 million goal).

According to Political Research Associates, a group that tracks nationalist currents in the U.S., sheriff departments throughout the country are riddled with members of the Patriot movement, Constitutional Sheriffs, militia members, Christian Identitarians, and white supremacists. Right here at home, Bristol County Massachusetts sheriff Tom Hodgson sits on the board of a group the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a hate group — FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, established by white supremacist John Tanton.

But combine police racism with hyper-patriotism, militarism and PTSD, and you’ve got a big problem.

Since 9-11 more than 2 million Americans have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department of Justice runs a program called COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) which provides grants to communities to turn “vets to cops.” In 2016 the DOJ handed out $119 million to help communities pay for approximately 900 policemen. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has created a recruitment guide for veterans, and veterans can use their GI Bill benefits while attending police academy. America increasingly says “thank you for your service” to its warriors by re-deploying them domestically.

But programs like these, and hiring practices that favor ex-military, have a serious downside. By prioritizing military experience over diversity, police departments put communities at risk. For example, the San Jose Police Department, a force with serious racism problems, sees veterans as naturals for the police “because we have a paramilitary structure, [and] military veterans often times can easily integrate.” What ever happened to community policing?

Then there are the after-effects of war. With an increasing percentage of veterans becoming police officers thanks to programs like COPS, many officers seem to think they are still fighting the Taliban or Iraqi insurgents. Ellen Kirshman, a psychologist who works with police officers, says that between 19% and 34% of all officers show some sign of PTSD: “This is pretty alarming. An officer with PTSD cannot think clearly, is probably hyper vigilant, has a short fuse, may not be sleeping well because of nightmares, might be policing in a reckless manner…” And this is precisely what one frequently sees in videos of police encounters with black men. Legislation has been signed into law to help officers with PTSD, but what about the public? Aren’t there cops who are simply too traumatized to serve the public? Even when they are identified, it’s difficult to remove them from the force.

When Elizabeth Warren spoke about the criminal justice system, she was talking about much more than policing. Yet police unions have become powerful lobbies and relentless opponents of criminal justice and prison reform. Natasha Lennard reports in the Intercept on the savage negative campaign the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) waged against Governor Mario Cuomo’s criminal justice reforms. Likewise, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association spent over $10 million lobbying for the Three Strikes law, mandatory life sentences, and prison expansions. In Illinois, police unions waged a campaign to stop the closure of the brutal Tamms Supermax prison. And we have fifty states just like this.

But nothing shows how racist the criminal justice system is as clearly as the history of opposition to reforming it.

In 1991 Rep. William Edwards introduced H.R.2972, the Police Accountability Act of 1991. The bill made it “unlawful for any governmental authority to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers that deprives persons of their constitutional or statutory rights, privileges, or immunities.” The bill had only 10 co-sponsors and never made it out of committee.

In 2000 John Conyers Jr. sponsored H.R. 3927, the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act of 2000, which sought to impose national standards on law enforcement as we currently do in education. It had only thirteen Democratic co-sponsors and never made it to a vote. In 2015 Conyers again filed H.R.2875, this time with 48 co-sponsors. But again it died.

In 2015 Rep. Henry Johnson Jr. sponsored H.R.1102, the Police Accountability Act of 2015, which had 15 co-sponsors and died. The bill amended “title 18, United States Code, to provide a penalty for assault or homicide committed by certain State or local law enforcement officers, and for other purposes.” Again in 2017 Johnson filed H.R.4331, with 8 lonely co-sponsors. Again, it died.

In 2017 Rep. Gwen Moore sponsored H.R. 3060, Preventing Tragedies between Police and Communities Act of 2017, which required that police departments receiving federal funding train officers in de-escalation techniques. The bill had only 24 co-sponsors and died in committee — having also failed in 2016.

In 2017 Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee sponsored H.R.47: Kalief’s Law, which sought to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to provide for the humane treatment of youths in police custody. The bill had only one co-sponsor and there was never a roll call vote.

Whether a majority or minority in Congress, police accountability has never been a priority for Democrats or Republicans. E. Tammy Kim, in an excellent piece in the Nation (“What to Do About the Police”), writes that, “as it stands, the three branches of government are unwilling to regulate the police. Mayors and governors defer to police chiefs and union presidents; judges make cheesecloth of the Fourth and 14th Amendments; and legislators vote again and again to increase law-enforcement budgets.”

In a 2015 ruling the Supreme Court gave police broad latitude to shoot at citizens recklessly and with impunity, when it rejected a suit against a Texas police officer who fired into a car with a high power rifle from an overpass, paralyzing a driver. The officer joked: “How’s that for proactive?”

In 2018 the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Kisela v. Hughes that police officers can not be sued for arbitrary and unnecessary shootings — effectively granting law enforcement a deluxe edition of Constitutional rights. In dissenting, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the ruling another sign of “unflinching willingness” to protect rogue cops and wrote that the decision “transforms the doctrine [of qualified immunity] into an absolute shield for law enforcement officers.” Cops in America today truly have a license to kill.

With one exception, every piece of reform legislation mentioned above was sponsored by an African-American. And that ought to tell you something — white people are just not stepping up in sufficent numbers to fix injustices involving police, the courts, prisons, parole and probation systems, or to provide adequate rehabilitation and treatment of those ensnared in the “system.”

To quote Warren’s again, “the hard truth about our criminal justice system: it’s racist… I mean front to back.”

Judge Katie Rayburn sentenced FANG activist Amory Zhou-Kourvo to ten days in jail yesterday for blocking the entrance to the Bristol County House of Correction. On August 20, 2018 Zhou-Kourvo and Holly Stein were arrested after cementing their arms to a concrete filled tire and fastening bike locks around their necks to a fence. Zhou-Kourvo’s sentence will be shortened by two days already served and Judge Rayburn is considering a request to permit the sentence to be served in Norfolk instead of Bristol County because of the Bristol County House of Correction’s abysmal reputation, and because of its sheriff’s closeness to the case. A dozen FANG supporters, several local activists, and representatives of the NAACP New Bedford attended the hearings.

After learning of the epidemic of suicides at the jail, widely reported in the Boston Globe and elsewhere, the Attorney General passed the buck to the Department of Corrections and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security — both headed by Baker appointees. The State Auditor, to her credit, conducted a friendly “performance audit” which, like a previous one, found financial and managerial irregularities at the Sheriff’s Office, but it fell short of a complete investigation that would have shed light on the neglect and deprivation of prisoners. The Office of the Inspector General — also headed by a Baker appointee — was given evidence of the sheriff’s financial abuses of taxpayer money, but again no action was taken. Legislation which would have stopped the sheriff’s giveaways of state money to ICE have been shelved in the Massachusetts House by Speaker DeLeo.

So — hats off to these young people for temporarily inconveniencing a sheriff at the scene of his own crimes.

Sitting through the hearings on Tuesday morning, it took a while to get to Zhou-Kourvo’s case. Right before the nineteen year-old was sentenced to jail, attendees in Katie Rayburn’s court watched her give probation to a fentanyl dealer who had beaten his wife and also been implicated in accessory-to-murder charges. For Rayburn, who insisted on handling the FANG cases herself following the initial arraignments, a message apparently needed to be sent — don’t mess with law enforcement, no matter how crooked it is.

If the name Katie Rayburn rings a bell, you probably just watched the HBO documentary on the Michelle Carter case. Rayburn was the ambitious Bristol County Assistant District Attorney who built a case around a story that a calculating 17 year-old ice princess convinced an adult “boyfriend” (who in reality she had met only a handful of times) to commit suicide by text message — from a 40 mile distance. The case raises so many questions that it is now headed for the Supreme Court.

The only expert witness in the case, psychiatrist Peter Breggin, who looked at the suite of medications both teens had been prescribed, came to a totally different conclusion about Carter’s culpability than in Rayburn’s tale. Even as Rayburn herself continued to try the case in front of the cameras, she slapped a gag order on Breggin. Rayburn was rewarded for her prosecutorial zeal (if not misconduct) with an appointment to the bench by Governor Charlie Baker.

Having seen the judge in action, it’s clear Rayburn still thinks she’s a prosecutor.

New Bedford’s local paper, the Standard Times, reported another suicide of a young woman on July 3rd at the Bristol County jail. Her name is being withheld, but she was reportedly in the women’s’ behavioral unit inside the men’s facility at the jail’s Faunce Corner location. According to Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, “There was absolutely no indication to anyone. This was a shock.”

Like most of the many suicides that preceded it, it is being investigated by the sheriff’s own department. A year ago reporters from the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) looked into the epidemic of suicides at the jail and the sheriff’s self-investigation. They described his process as essentially a whitewash, noting that “Hodgson’s report concluded that his jail staff did everything right in all cases.”

The Standard Times added a postscript to their suicide article with the phone number of the National Suicide Hotline. But this latest victim was not a member of the public with suicidal ideation. She was a prisoner at a notorious jail known for its extremely high rate of suicides, known for its deprivation of medical and psychiatric care, known for driving its prisoners to despair. The postscript should instead have been directed at the correct audience — prisoners — by adding the phone number of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division.

This was the second suicide in two months. On May 3rd, Mark Trafton was found in his cell at the Bristol County Sheriff’s Ash Street jail and pronounced dead by paramedics. Despite a social media discussion that described the man’s apparent suicidal intentions, a sheriff’s spokesman told a reporter from the New Bedford Guide that the man “didn’t give any indication […] to wanting to take his own life, nor did he have any prior history or exhibit any suicidal behaviors or statements since he arrived in custody.” The sheriff’s statement sounded scripted. “We offer our condolences to his family and we’re keeping not only them but everyone involved in this incident in our prayers.”

These latest suicides represent a return to Bristol County’s shameful record as the county jail with the worst suicide record in the Commonwealth. We renew our calls to place this facility in receivership. It is a failed correctional facility. The administrator shows more interest in making the talk show circuit to disparage asylum-seekers than in running a jail humanely and professionally. An interim warden should be appointed and a full, independent investigation of the facility should be conducted.

Legislators, the Attorney General, the State Auditor, the Inspector General, the Department of Corrections, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, the Governor — we have appealed to all of them to stop these suicides negligent homicides and other abuses at the Bristol County jail. How many more are they going to ignore while paying lip-service to their public duties?

Yesterday I attended the Bristol County 3rd District Court sentencing of Holly Landowne-Stein, who was arrested for cementing herself to the gate of the Bristol County jail in August 2018. Landowne-Stein and several others were calling attention to abuses at the jail by Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, and protesting his 287(g) agreement with ICE. The activists were charged with not only trespassing, but inflated charges of disturbing the peace and resisting arrest.

When you enter the New Bedford courthouse, you may not bring with you any recording devices or personal electronics. Justice [such as it is] may not be blind — but in the American justice system the nasty business that goes on in courts and jails must be done in twilight.

Courtroom #4 has three banks of benches, the front row reserved for a parade of legal counsel that handles hearings on an industrial scale. Bristol County now uses a scheme most Americans imagine only exists in Cairo, Riyadh, Beijing, or Kazakhstan — the cases are heard by a judge on the other end of a wire, providing neither the accused’s defense lawyer nor the public any chance to see or hear the accused in person. While we waited, two public defenders commented on the difficulties of properly representing their clients this way, not the least of which is the ability to confer privately during the hearings.

This electronically-dispensed “justice” seemed to be far from efficient. In case after case, defense attorneys complained of not having received discovery materials from the District Attorney’s office; in all cases this meant that the accused would have to sit in jail several more weeks until the ADA shared their information with the defense. In a few cases the accused’s lawyer was either not present or could not be located when the prisoner was hauled before the cameras in the Ash Street jail. In one case the prisoner’s bail had already been paid and the judge was confused about why the prisoner was still incarcerated.

In another dispensing of one-minute justice, one defense lawyer wanted to enter a plea but could not — because his client was not physically present. Another prisoner seemed to be in a Catch-22 situation with the New York courts. Miles away, and trying to be heard over the clanking of bars and the din of voices at Ash Street, it was impossible to see whatever paperwork the man was waving — hoping — that the judge would consider.

I’ve been to court before, but this one morning illustrates the efficiencies of the prison-industrial complex and the lengths to which the courts will go to create a simulacrum of “justice.” Each hearing took approximately sixty seconds as incarcerated widgets were processed through a remote assembly line – each prisoner’s humanity reduced to a smudge of pixels on a screen.

In one hearing, that of Maria Carrion, who was charged as part of Operation Ghost with fentanyl trafficking, District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III himself showed up in court, presumably to send a get-tough message to the judge, Douglas J. Darnbrough, a Baker appointee. Or maybe Quinn was just grandstanding like his matching bookend, Tom Hodgson.

Finally, the case we had all come to hear was being called.

Holly Landowne-Stein’s supporters, four from New Bedford, and twenty from Providence — including her mother, Rabbi Ann Landowne — had to wait until around noon for her sentencing. After posing numerous questions to the activist, including asking her if she voluntarily waived a jury or bench trial, her right to question witnesses, and querying if she was happy with her representation and understood all charges against her, Judge Douglas J. Darnbrough sentenced Landowne-Stein to 10 days in the Ash Street jail, with a one day credit for time served. She was immediately cuffed and taken from the room.

As the father of thirty-something children myself, I felt great admiration for this young woman, who had put her values and her freedom on the line to protest a sheriff who has quite literally killed and injured people through willful neglect and cruelty. I could easily imagine the fear and pain a parent feels as cuffs are placed on his child’s wrists – and, in this case, the anger at state violence masquerading as justice.

Nine days should pass relatively quickly for this young woman. Unlike many (if not most) detainees at Tom Hodgson’s jails, Holly Landowne-Stein has her health, her sobriety, and dedicated friends and family on the “outside.” Her experience will be nothing like a thousand others, far less fortunate, who are victimized for up to two and a half years in his facilities – all because society doesn’t want to know what goes on inside those walls.

The fight against Hodgson’s abuses and his ICE collaboration will continue.

Tom Hodgson is in bed with the extreme Right. There’s his seat on the National Board of Advisors of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a group founded by white supremacist John Tanton. Then there’s his membership in the Constitutional Sheriff’s and Police Officer’s Association, an extremist group of lawmen who claim to know the proper interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Then there are Hodgson’s flirtations with Muslim-bashers, gay-bashers, birthers, and all manner of conspiracy nuts — many of them members of FAIR.

And then, in a category all by himself, there’s Rick Wiles.

In November 2014 Hodgson appeared on TruNews — the “End Times Newscast” with Wiles, who advocates locking up people whose politics he disagrees with — just like Hodgson. The sheriff managed to cram in many of FAIR’s talking points on Wiles’ show, repeating the lie that Mexico pays $300 per child to come into the United States, that 30,000 Americans have been murdered by illegal immigrants since 9/11, and that undocumented immigrants receive better treatment than citizens because — well — that’s just what America-hating Liberal elites want.

Wiles then turned his questions to the “historical role of the Constitutional sheriff,” giving Hodgson an opportunity to whine about Massachusetts mayors and other officials who support Safe Communities. The show ended with Wiles appealing to his audience to raise funds for local sheriffs to attend a FAIR-sponsored event. Hodgson, who in 2014 was already sticking taxpayers for his FAIR-related travel, never bothered to correct Wiles.

So it didn’t come as a surprise when Hodgson’s old buddy went on the air, warning that any opposition to Donald Trump’s plan to build a border wall would result in the US military rounding up godless subversives and smiting them. Extreme, certainly. But that’s why people like Wiles and Hodgson are called extremists.

“They’d better wise up and stop what they’re doing because they’re pushing the republic to the brink of breaking,” Wiles warned. “They’d better count the cost. What happens if you push the country that far? You snap the bonds that hold this country together [and] you might be shocked at the reaction you get because there is a lot of fury built up inside millions of Americans who are just fed up with what the Left is doing.”

“It’s going to be lights out for the Democrats and the leftists,” Wiles said. “The conservative patriots will slam your slimy butts against the wall that you hate. It’s going to happen. They are not going to tolerate it. The American people want law and order in this country and the Democrats are a party of rebellion, of lawlessness. They better count the cost before they do something crazy because there’s a limit to how much patience the American people are going to show them.”

But speaking of locking people up — locking Tom Hodgson in his office on Faunce Corner Road might not be such a crazy idea.

Then maybe the immigration-obsessed sheriff could finally take care of the many messes he’s created by neglecting his day job — spending all his working hours with proto-fascists like Wiles and his white supremacist handlers at FAIR.

When something is too good to be true, it usually isn’t.

During Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson’s 287(g) hearings on April 10, 2019, citizens pushed back at Hodgson’s claims that his 287(g) agreement with ICE is a big money-maker. Hodgson claimed that since 2007 he has “earned” $61 million of ICE reimbursements for the Commonwealth. News sources have been parroting the sheriff’s numbers without really looking at the math.

Some of us, on the other hand, have reason to believe the sheriff is simply subsidizing ICE detentions at a loss to the taxpayer because of his well-known associations with far-right anti-immigrant groups. And recently obtained Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association figures support this suspicion.

The FY2017 Massachusetts Sheriff’ s Association’s “Spending per Inmate Report” for all counties shows that the average cost per prisoner per day in the Commonwealth’s 13 county jails is roughly $134 — well over the $98 that ICE reimburses Hodgson and the $90-$94 it reimburses other Massachusetts sheriffs. Hodgson’s incredible (as in “not credible”) figures are so low, and so anomalous, that only forensic accounting by a watchdog agency can ascertain if they are truthful.

Right before she was ejected from the hearings for arguing with Hodgson, local activist Marlene Pollock asked the sheriff if his suspicious figures were the result of (1) skimping on food, rehabilitation and medical care of prisoners, (2) if the sheriff was still using the shoddy financial management practices a recent state audit faulted him for; or (3) if Hodgson had found some magic formula no other sheriff could duplicate.

The sheriff chose the last option, calling the state audit a “joke” and trumpeting his SAMS system — a 20 year-old piece of homegrown management software and the data it tracks “right down to the cost of a cup of coffee” — as the key to his too-good-to-believe custody and care costs. When challenged to share his expertise with other sheriffs, Hodgson declined, claiming that House Speaker Robert DeLeo had all the numbers.

And now the public needs to see those numbers.

The Bristol County sheriff may not appreciate the scrutiny, but the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association report calls into serious question Hodgson’s fabulous (as in “out of a fable”) per-diem rate. Only a complete and detailed accounting of Bristol County Sheriff’s Office income and expenses — right down to the cost of that cup of coffee — will prove whether the sheriff and his numbers can truly be trusted. Equally important, the question of whether the state’s ICE agreements are losing money can finally be answered.

Though short of a full accounting, Amendment 1250 to the FY2020 budget requires sheriffs participating in 287(g) agreements to document the real costs of caring for, and the proper reimbursement of, ICE detainees. This amendment was sponsored by representatives Cabral of New Bedford, Robinson of Framingham, Balser of Newton, Domb of Amherst, Hecht of Watertown, Vega of Holyoke, Provost of Somerville, Peake of Provincetown, Lewis of Framingham, Garballey of Arlington, Decker of Cambridge, Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield and DuBois of Brockton.

Bristol County for Correctional Justice recently testified before the Ways and Means Committee in favor of the amendment, and we urge state representatives concerned with the abuse of taxpayer money to support its provisions.

When something is too good to be true, it usually isn’t.

Citizens of Bristol County have known for years that sheriff Tom Hodgson peddles fiction while demonizing brown people, that he relies on sham awards and sham accreditations to spray away the stink of the human rights abuses, prisoner mistreatment and deaths at his facilities, and he is not averse to using excessive force on prisoners.

But last night Bristol County residents got a little taste of it themselves at an ostensibly “public hearing” the sheriff is required to hold once a year as part of his 287(g) agreement with ICE.

In contrast to recent 287(g) hearings in Barnstable and Plymouth counties, Hodgson’s show was not a public event. And, unlike his award ceremonies which are often held at schools to maximize the number of community visitors, this one was designed to keep the public away from people asking tough questions.

In line with the xenophobe who relentlessly shills for “Fortress America,” getting into Hodgson’s hearings was almost as bad as going through airport security. Anyone who wanted to attend first had to RSVP by email, then get by the jail’s guard house, where “Special Sheriff” Bruce Assad checked their ID, permitting only those on the “list” to enter the jail complex. Visitors were then directed to a parking lot from which they had to walk about a thousand feet, past a phalanx of armed deputies, to the jail’s auditorium, where once again they had to show ID.

Nor could the spectacle really be called a hearing. Though the ICE panel included Sheriff’s Office Legal Counsel Robert Novack, “Special Sheriff” Bruce Assad, Superintendent of Security Steven Souza, ICE Boston Deputy Field Office Director Marcos Charles, ICE Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer Claudia English, Sheriff’s Director of Immigration Services Liunetty Couto, and Sheriff’s spokesman Jon Darling, Hodgson did all the talking. This was his show.

During the “hearings” the tone-deaf sheriff refused to truly listen to the roughly 50 attendees, most of whom disapprove of Hodgson’s abuses of prisoners and his unilateral decision to sign the 287(g) agreement. The sheriff treated his guest with contempt, evading questions, peddling falsehoods, frequently changed the subject, lashing out at his enemies, and it was clear the purpose was mainly to demonstrate that he was in control of the show.

At the beginning of the proceedings, two members of the FANG Collective, Arely Diaz and Max Grear, unfurled a banner and began to make a statement. They were immediately assaulted by a number of Bristol County deputies, arms twisted into submission, and were shoved out the door. They did not resist, nor did they refuse to leave. The two had RSVP’d and were on the sheriff’s “list.” Nevertheless, the two face multiple charges, including trespassing, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. FANG may have momentarily interrupted the sheriff’s staged event, but the disorderly conduct was entirely the sheriff’s by responding with violence to people who had irritated him by protesting in front of his house last winter.

The thin-skinned sheriff also ejected New Bedford activist Marlene Pollock, who had the temerity to challenge him during one exchange on former inmate claims of brutality and neglect. Hodgson delivered personal insults to Pollock and referred to her long history of opposing him before ejecting her as well from “his” hearings. Through both these authoritarian acts of force Hodgson made it clear he was delivering personal payback to his political enemies.

There was a contingent of deputies inside and out who managed to create an intimidating environment for attendees. A conspicuous display of weapons was a new touch this year, and it seemed hardly coincidental. Everyone was packing a sidearm, including the sheriff, and ICE Boston Deputy Field Office Director Marcos Charles was wearing an ankle holster.

The arrests and ejection of the sheriff’s enemies were the only aspect of the hearings that the press generally thought to cover. Among issues of substance raised by Bristol County voters last night were Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association’s figures showing that ICE agreements are actually costing the state millions — not raking in the profits that Hodgson claims and the press parrots. Citizen questions also revealed that the number of deputized ICE agents at the jail has not increased and that in the last year only 18 Bristol County ICE detainees were arrested on criminal charges. Bristol County Jail and ICE statistics both refute the sheriff’s claims that “criminal aliens” are overwhelming the Commonwealth.

Community members also questioned whether all the money lost to ICE could not be better spent on medically assisted drug treatment, prisoner rehabilitation and education programs, and better food and health care. But the sheriff retreated to his single preoccupation — immigration — claiming that immigrants account for most of America’s crime, that MS-13 is taking over the state, and that 90% of the opioids in the US are coming across the border. Community pushback on these lies and misinformation accomplished nothing. The sheriff’s heart and mind are black holes admitting no light.

It was a complete waste of time for everyone. But for Hodgson it may have been a great audition for one of those empty Homeland Security jobs now available with the Trump administration.

Lickspittle

Like the Anglo-American position of “High Sheriff” the word “lickspittle” is a relic of the 17th century. The phrase “lick the spittle” as a repulsive act dates back to the 1640s.

Pronunciation

lick·​spit·​tle | \ ˈlik-ˌspi-tᵊl \

Definition

lickspittle (noun): a fawning subordinate, sycophant, abject toady, one who will do any repulsive thing

Synonyms

apple-polisher; ass-kisser; boot-licker; brown-noser; fawner; flatterer; flunky; groveler; lackey; suck-up; sycophant; toady; truckler; yes-man

Example

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.