[ Update ] Hodgson to give additional pay to COs during epidemic

[ Update ] Hodgson to give additional pay to COs during epidemic

By Tim Dunn Contributing Writer
Posted Apr 10, 2020


Sheriff says officers are doing extra cleaning and working in hazardous environment

DARTMOUTH — Sheriff Thomas Hodgson has committed to paying corrections officers at the Bristol County House of Correction a bonus during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hodgson issued a letter to his staff on Thursday as a notice of the adjusted compensation, which begins Sunday.

According to the letter, all staff working inside the secure perimeter of the facility will receive an additional $50 for each eight-hour shift. Staff members working outside the secure perimeter will be paid an additional $40 per eight-hour shift. The extra pay applies to staff working at both the Ash Street Jail in New Bedford and the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction in Dartmouth. If individuals work a partial second shift they will be paid $6.50 an hour. The staff will not be compensated if, for any reason, i.e. vacation, personal, sick, etc., they do not work on any particular day.

The sheriff said that his staff is exposed to a “hazardous environment” while at work and praised their ability to take on additional responsibilities during fight against the spread of coronavirus to the inmate population, as well as the rest of the staff after a nurse and two sheriff’s officers tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days.

“My staff has to come into a very challenging environment, and we’ve actually asked them to do quite a bit more to minimize the risks of people contracting the disease in here. They have to go through decontamination and when they go home the first thing they have to do is wash their clothes. So, these are really are sort of over-and-above precautionary things that they otherwise wouldn’t have had to do. And certainly, dealing with the inmates and the new protocols and things that we have, I felt that they were definitely worthy of it,” Hodgson said.

Hodgson’s letter was posted to the official Twitter page of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office Friday morning.

“The ongoing efforts of our team and attention to detail regarding the historic challenge before us have been amazing. Provided we remain mindful and vigilant with our social distancing and personal sanitation, both here and in the community, we can reach our shared goal of preventing our inmate population, us, and our families from becoming exposed to and infected by COVID-19,” he wrote.

He reminded staff that if they develop a cough, fever, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, or just begin to not feel well that you report it immediately to their supervisor and go home. If symptoms persist, he instructed them to contact their doctor for consultation and final approval to return to work.

“So far we don’t have any COVID-19 cases, knock on wood, in regards to our inmates and detainees. We hopefully won’t have any, but we’ll see. We’ve asked them to take extra precautions and disciplines, and we’re grateful for that,” he said.

The Sheriff has been criticized by social justice groups, such as Bristol County for Correctional Justice and the ACLU, for his position opposing the release of inmates to reduce the risk of spreading the virus to the inmate population.

Marlene Pollock, a member of Bristol County for Correctional Justice, said she approved of the pay increase but not the sheriff’s resistance to releasing low-level inmates.

“In terms of giving his staff a raise, I think that’s great. I think that he owes it to them because those staff members are at risk too, it’s not just the people locked inside, it’s also all the people that work there. As everybody has said, ‘The coronavirus does not differentiate.’ It goes after everybody,’” she said.

“You need to thin out the (inmate) population because you can’t maintain the proper social distancing unless you do. And the refusal of the sheriff to consider that, as well as reports we have that he is not providing enough soap, tells us the conditions inside are pretty bad.”

Pollock noted that other district attorneys and sheriffs in the commonwealth are working to release inmates.

“There are other district attorneys and sheriffs across the state that are, case by case, looking at people that don’t pose a threat to individuals in our community and could be released, should be released,” she said. “Probably a lot of people just don’t have the money for bail and they end up there, or they end up on technical violations of their probation or parole. There certainly are people who could be on supervised release and it would protect everyone.”

Hodgson dismissed what social justice or activist groups think about him or his staff.

“I think everybody is really happy with it, and frankly, I wouldn’t much entertain or care about what the social justice groups think about my staff, who come from their homes everyday and work in an environment that is dangerous and have extra responsibilities at this time.”

The groups have criticized Hodgson on multiple occasions in the past for his management of and operations at the jails.

Representatives of the Massachusetts Correctional Officers Union have yet to respond to requests for comment.