From Common Cause:
In Bristol County, Massachusetts, more than 30 people have died behind bars in the last 10 years.1 Overwhelmingly, these are people awaiting trial. Some have died because of substance withdrawal and others by suicide. And the
people who remain incarcerated say that they’re not receiving basic health care, including one man in Bristol County who has given us permission to share his story anonymously.
Yet Thomas M. Hodgson, the longtime sheriff of Bristol County and the sole leader of the jail facility, has made no changes to the health care provider, CPS Healthcare. CPS has spent more than $20,365 on sheriffs’ campaigns in Massachusetts, and $12,040 has gone directly to Hodgson. The State of Massachusetts reports that state sheriffs paid a total of $9.82 million in contracts to CPS Healthcare from 2012 to 2021.2
Hodgson appears to be the rule, rather than the exception, which we show in The Paid Jailer: How Sheriff Campaign Dollars Shape Mass Incarceration. In the United States, more than 3,000 sheriffs possess unchecked authority over
arrests, incarceration, and civil enforcement. Common Cause and Sheriffs for Trusting Communities sought financial and related data from 105 sheriffs to investigate conflicts of interest and ethics issues. For this report, we define a
conflict of interest when a public official (e.g., a sheriff) is in a position to receive a personal benefit (e.g., a campaign contribution) from actions or decisions made in their official capacity (e.g., awarding contracts). More specifically, we define conflicts of interest as contributions to sheriff candidates from incarceration-specific businesses, as well as other businesses and individuals that may stand to benefit by doing business with a sheriff’s office (including construction, food services, and weapons manufacturers).3 Unfortunately, many conflicts of interest are not prohibited
by government ethics laws. Continue reading >>>
|
|
|
|
