AG s office rips Bristol County Sheriff s Office for violating civil rights of ICE detainees after melee over COVID testing thesunchronicle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thesunchronicle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bristol County Sheriff’s Office illegally used dogs, excessive pepper spray against immigrant detainees who may have had COVID, Mass. AG reports
Updated Dec 15, 2020;
The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office violated the civil rights of federal immigration detainees, including unlawfully using dogs and excessive pepper spray on detainees potentially infected with COVID-19 in a May incident in the county jail that began nonviolently, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey alleged in an investigative report released Tuesday.
Healey’s office, which recommended sweeping training and oversight reforms at Bristol County facilities, found that BCSO personnel deliberately used excessive and disproportionate force after 10 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees refused to consent to COVID-19 testing and isolation on May 1. BCSO “acted with deliberate indifference to a significant risk of serious harm to the health of several detainees,” the report found.
The immigration detention center at the Bristol County Sheriff s Office in Dartmouth, Mass. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
A new report issued Tuesday by Attorney General Maura Healey s office finds Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson violated the civil rights of federal immigration detainees during a violent altercation in May.
After a months-long investigation, the attorney general
determined Hodgson and his staff used excessive force in their response to a disturbance among some immigration detainees, employing a variety of weapons, including a flash bang grenade, pepper spray and pepper-balls, anti-riot shields and canines.
“Our investigation revealed that the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office violated the rights of detainees by using excessive force and by seriously risking their health and safety,” Healey said. “This callous disregard for the well-being of immigration detainees is unacceptable and must be addressed through the significant reforms we outline in our report.
A prisoner advocacy group is claiming there is a coronavirus outbreak at the Ash Street Jail in New Bedford but a spokesperson for Sheriff Thomas Hodgson says the accusation is simply not true.
The Bristol County for Correctional Justice said in a press release Friday that several local lawyers say their clients are reporting an outbreak at the aging facility. The organization says the reports are consistent with an alarming trend of coronavirus surges in correctional facilities throughout the state and the country.
âItâs a systemic thing happening in Bristol County,â New Bedford Attorney Colleen Tynan said in a statement. âItâs not a modern facility and Sheriff Tom Hodgson is choosing not to test.â
NEW BEDFORD An advocacy organization is claiming that there is a COVID-19 outbreak at Ash Street Jail, but a spokesman for the Bristol County Sheriff s Office is saying that is not the case.
Bristol County for Correctional Justice sent out a press release Friday morning stating they had learned from several local attorneys that clients are reporting an outbreak of COVID-19 at the jail.
Later that day, a spokesperson for the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, Jonathan Darling, said there is no COVID outbreak at the Ash Street Jail, but there are two corrections officers who tested positive and are out of work.