How Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux aims to save lives

There’s a new sheriff in town in Bristol County, and it shows. Former Attleboro mayor Paul Heroux, the Democrat who finally ousted right-wing sheriff Thomas Hodgson in November, marked his 100th day in office last week.

While it’s early in his term, Heroux’s leadership already stands out at the sheriff ’s office in Bristol County, which contains 20 municipalities, including Fall River, New Bedford, and Attleboro.

During his 25-year reign as sheriff,

Hodgson — the Republican who was perhaps former president Donald Trump’s most ardent supporter in Massachusetts — became notorious for his cruel and dangerous jail policies and dehumanizing treatment of immigrant detainees. For instance, Hodgson, who was often nicknamed the “Joe Arpaio” of the region, offered to send inmates to the US-Mexico border to help build Trump’s infamous wall; attempted to introduce chain gangs; and held the infamous record for having the highest rate of inmate suicides in the state. From 2006 to 2022, more than 20 individuals died by suicide under Hodgson’s watch.

Heroux understood the assignment and wasted no time in tackling that high rate of suicides. He hired a nationally recognized expert on preventing suicides in jails to do a study, which was released last week. Lindsay M. Hayes, who has conducted all five national studies of jail, prison, and juvenile suicides, according to the 64-page report, offered 23 specific recommendations for the Bristol County Sheriff ’s Office, including increasing staff training time on suicide prevention; providing more privacy during the inmates’ initial screenings; and revising the screening questionnaire to better uncover suicidal intentions.

Crucially, Hayes recommended that Heroux’s officials ensure that cells designated for suicidal inmates are suicideresistant, including the replacement of metal bunk frames. Since 2017, 10 Bristol County inmates died by suicide, a rate that’s more than three times the national average in 2019. Of those 10 suicides, seven occurred at the county’s jail and House of Correction facility in North Dartmouth. They all used “railings or ventilation holes” in metal bunk beds “as an anchoring point in their suicides by hanging,” per the report.

It’s why Heroux said he’d start modifying about 1,000 beds and showed a prototype last week as he discussed the report, according to The New Bedford Light. The prototype bed frame minimizes the risk of suicide by removing ventilation holes, railings, and ladders.

For Marlene Pollock, a founding member of the Bristol County for Correctional Justice advocacy group, Hayes’s study is proof that at least some of the 20-plus deaths that occurred on Hodgson’s watch could have been prevented. A 2017 New England Center for Investigative Reporting piece that highlighted Bristol County’s high rate of jail suicides was “one of the things that motivated our group to form,” Pollock said in an interview.

“Heroux’s management style is, ‘OK, how can we prevent this?’ rather than Hodgson’s, which was, ‘oh, we’ve done everything we can,’” she said.

Indeed, in just over three months, Heroux has demonstrated there’s a lot more to be done and not just on suicide prevention. Pollock said the new sheriff created new staff positions dedicated to giving due attention and offering more services to the inmate population. “He also brought in some of his own personnel from when he was mayor, which I think is a great idea because you’re coming into an ecosystem where you have to have people you know and trust,” Pollock said. She said she was impressed Heroux hired a former director of the New England Innocence Project as his legal counsel. “It’s exciting to us that he’s going to have somebody who has some insight into things that could be fixed in the criminal justice system.”

Heroux told me he wants to close down the 135-year-old Ash Street Jail, a move that would save taxpayers several million dollars. Heroux also said he has extended training time for new correction officers from eight to nine weeks. He’s seeking a waiver from the state that would allow him to lower the hiring age for correction officer cadets from 19 to 18. “We’re down 33 percent of staffing levels. We have about 100 openings for corrections officer jobs,” Heroux said.

I asked Heroux if it’s been hard to implement reforms. “People hate the way things were but people also hate change,” Heroux said. Be that as it may, Heroux is already proving that some sensible humanity and common sense can go a long way in the criminal justice system.

In just over three months, Heroux has demonstrated there’s a lot more to be done and not just on suicide prevention.