On his second day as sheriff, Paul Heroux was face to face with the suicide problem he promised to address on the campaign trail. A man had hung himself from a bunk bed, marking the Bristol County jail system’s 20th inmate suicide in the past decade.
Among the first steps Heroux took was to hire an outside expert to identify more effective suicide prevention protocols.
Heroux announced the results of that study at a press conference on April 13, alongside other steps the new sheriff is taking to manage the jails differently than his predecessor, Thomas Hodgson, who lost election last November after 25 years in office.
The report found that the suicide rate in Bristol County’s jails was more than triple the national average for county jails during the past six years. Heroux said he will implement a set of 23 policy changes suggested in the report, ranging from an overhaul of the screening process for new inmates to a redesign of the jail’s bunk beds to make them less conducive to suicide by hanging.
“If these things were done, I think that some suicides could have been prevented,” Heroux said.
Heroux’s broader plans to overhaul the county jail system also include the closure of the Ash Street Jail, an 135-year-old facility which houses about 80 inmates in New Bedford’s West End.
At Thursday’s press conference, Heroux announced that he has identified a much cheaper and faster way to close the jail than he initially proposed during his first month in office. Heroux previously sought about $10 million in state funding to make room for Ash Street’s inmates by renovating a vacant building on the campus of the Dartmouth House of Correction— a former immigration detention center shuttered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2021 following a violent disturbance that occurred there under Hodgson’s watch.
Heroux’s plan faced an uphill battle amid skepticism from some local politicians, including New Bedford’s mayor.
But Heroux said on Thursday that he now believes he could close the jail with just $1.6 million from an account already under his control: the profits from the county jail’s canteen.
Heroux said the much newer Dartmouth House of Correction is only filled to half of its capacity, and could accommodate the pre-trial detainees transferring from Ash Street if a trio of dormitory-style units are renovated to provide each cell with a locking door and a toilet.
“We’re hoping to be able to close Ash Street in about two years,” Heroux said. “We have the money. We can do it in house.”
The last component of Heroux’s push to reform the county jail system is an overhaul of his staff. Heroux said he wants to create about 20 new positions to support inmates under a newly created director of inmate services. A proposed organizational chart shows new positions devoted to finding housing, health care and employment for former inmates upon release. It also includes case workers devoted to connecting inmates to programming within the jail.
To achieve that vision, some funding could come from a series of cost-cutting measures Heroux is proposing within the county jail system. Heroux plans to cancel a lease with a private landlord who provides training space for the sheriff’s staff. Heroux said the lease currently costs the sheriff’s office about $150,000 a year.
Heroux has also identified a number of positions and programs overseen by the sheriff’s office that he characterized as superfluous, including four staff members assigned to work with other law enforcement agencies operating in the area. Heroux said he is reassigning those staff members to handle internal investigations within his jail.
“We’re not going to subsidize the police departments, the state police and the FBI anymore,” Heroux said. “We need to keep the resources in house.”
Among the programs Heroux plans to end are a public education program about financial crimes for senior citizens.
“We’re not here to take care of senior citizens in that manner,” Heroux said. “We’re here to take care of inmates and get them back on their feet.”
Another program on the chopping block is the jail’s touring schedule for its comfort dogs, which make frequent trips to schools across Bristol County. Heroux said he will retrain the animals to search for contraband within the jail.
The cost of Heroux’s proposed expansions to his inmate support staff will also require additional funding from the legislature, though. The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office is seeking to grow its annual budget to $68 million, an increase of about $12 million that Heroux said he is confident he can secure.
“If not, then when we don’t reduce recidivism, I can say it’s the state’s fault,” Heroux said. “I’m working with the resources that they give me.”
Ben Berke is the South Coast Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenBerke6.
