A Note on County Prisoners

County corrections can be a meaningful point of intervention and rehabilitation, and the policies and programming of our jails and houses of correction play a significant role in whether a prisoner ultimately reintegrates successfully into the community or re-offends after release. However, any evaluation of programming should also recognize the challenges that prisoners bring with them to correctional facilities.

County prisoners come to correctional facilities with existing barriers to successful intervention, rehabilitation, and re-integration: they are mostly undereducated, under-employable, and have active substance abuse problems. In fact, according to some working in county corrections, substance abuse treatment is determinative; without successful substance abuse treatment, other programs addressing education, anger management, and job skills, etc., are almost meaningless.

Some may view these obstacles as the prisoner’s personal failures, while others may see them as societal failures, or both. Either way, these factors are a reality and must be addressed. Some sheriffs recognize these factors and have worked to develop effective programming that can make the most of the short sentences served in county facilities.

County prisoner characteristics are based on information provided by the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department and the Massachusetts Department of Correction, Research and Planning Division, New Court Commitments to Massachusetts County Correctional Facilities During 2003, (Boston: Massachusetts DOC, June 2004).

Massachusetts County Sheriffs

• Five sheriffs are Republicans, eight are Democrats, and one is registered as Democrat/Republican/GreenRainbow (Sheriff Bretschneider of Nantucket).




• At least seven sheriffs have backgrounds in law enforcement: two were state troopers, three worked in municipal police departments, one was a probation officer, and one was a corrections officer.



• At least eight sheriffs have military backgrounds; at least two have worked as educators; one has a background in social work; and two current sheriffs are attorneys.



• Five sheriffs have held other elected offices: two have been state representatives, one was a state senator, one was a county commissioner, and one was elected as both a state representative and a city councilor.



• At least ten of the fourteen sheriffs hold college degrees; at least seven hold graduate degrees.



• Twelve of the sheriffs are white, and two are African-American (Cousins of Essex and Cabral of Suffolk).



• One of the fourteen sheriffs is female (Cabral of Suffolk).



• Half of the state’s fourteen sheriffs have been in office less than ten years. Long-time sheriffs, in office more than ten years, are found exclusively in the western part of the state: Sheriff Michael J. Ashe of Hampden County (since 1974), Sheriff Carmen Massimiano of Berkshire County (since 1978), Sheriff Robert Garvey of Hampshire County (since 1984), and Sheriff Frederick MacDonald of Franklin County (since 1992). All sheriffs east of and including Worcester County came to office within the last ten years, and seven entered office since 1998.