'A movement for change': Bristol County Sheriff Heroux vows new focus on inmate services

FALL RIVER — After a quarter of a century, there’s a new sheriff in town.

Former Attleboro mayor Paul Heroux was officially sworn in as Bristol County sheriff on Tuesday afternoon in his inauguration ceremony, held at B.M.C. Durfee High School, before a crowd of well over a hundred local supporters, volunteers, area dignitaries, family — even his fourth-grade teacher.

“This was a movement for change,” Heroux said in a brief speech. The new sheriff thanked supporters and outlined broad ideas for what inmates and employees of the Bristol County House of Correction might see in the next six years under his administration, including a new administrator to focus on improving inmates' lives.

After being led to the stage by the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard carrying the state and national flags — "our first operation together,” Heroux noted — Secretary of State William Galvin administered to Heroux the oath of office.

Galvin said when Heroux first told him he was interested in the sheriff’s job, Galvin gave him a blunt opinion: “I think you’re crazy.”

“But in his explanation and his response, he demonstrated to me what I probably already should have known: his passion and commitment for things he really cares about — his commitment to concerns about corrections and recidivism and improving the lives of people who’ve found themselves on the wrong side of the law," Galvin said.

"No one should ever underestimate Paul Heroux.”

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Heroux takes over as administrator of the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth and the Ash Street Jail in New Bedford — a department battered by long-standing accusations of cruelty and mistreatment under the guidance of Thomas M. Hodgson.

The campaign traded in ugly recriminations at times, with Hodgson asserting Heroux was exploiting an inmate suicide and the challenger going so far as to link Hodgson to “extremist and white supremacist groups.” Both candidates spent nearly $700,000 on the race, according to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance — more than $509,000 of that from Hodgson alone.

Since the race, however, the two have cooperated on a smooth transition of power, which Heroux noted in his speech.

“I’d also like to thank Sheriff Hodgson for his 25 years of service in this role, for being a professional and a gentleman during this transition and for personally giving me a tour of the jail prior to my arrival," Heroux said.

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Heroux told supporters to “be patient” with him as he takes on the role, and not to expect a drastic overhaul immediately, saying, “I take things seriously, but I do not overreact. I’m going to act on things I can improve, and I’m going to be fair.”

One major change Heroux announced: he would create a new position at the sheriff’s office, a director of inmate services that would focus on improving conditions for the incarcerated. This administrator, he said, would oversee “matters concerning medical, food, education, rehabilitation programs, discharge plans, and other similar concerns. … This would be an experienced administrator with a history of running a facility specializing in mental health, medical care, addiction and other like services.”

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Heroux has prior corrections experience in the Philadelphia jail system and as director of research for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, and said such a position worked in those settings. “It’s basically what we did in Philadelphia, and it’s what’s being done in Mass DOC," he said.

He briefly noted a plan to help homeless veterans obtain jobs in the sheriff's department, and to study the high suicide rate at Bristol County jails.

He also stated a commitment to transparency as sheriff, saying he would encourage tours of facilities for the public to see how the jails operate, and would personally perform and publish studies on recidivism and the effectiveness of jail programs.

“I’m going to do that myself. I have the skill set,” Heroux said. He added that he would publish results even if programs are shown to be ineffective — but then also explain what alternatives the department would use instead.

“It’s critically important that we know what we are doing and if what we are doing is effective or not,” Heroux said. “This isn’t a Republican ideal, it’s not a Democrat ideal — this is just about good government.”

State Rep. Antonio F.D. Cabral, D-New Bedford, applauded Heroux’s approach to studying the recidivism rate, saying it was crucial to making sure inmates " have a better chance to be better citizens.”

“The average inmate in a correctional facility serves about six months," Cabral said. “So we know they’re all coming back to their neighborhoods, back to their communities. That should be the main focus of that office.”

'What we do in corrections is God's work'

Hodgson, a Republican, was first appointed to the sheriff’s post in 1997 by then-governor William Weld. He won his first election to the seat in 1998; voters returned him to office three consecutive times thereafter.

During his time in office, Hodgson also stirred controversy with a tough-on-crime approach that critics called inhumane and cruel. Early on, Hodgson instituted “tandem work crews” of prisoners linked together performing community cleanup work, a practice derided as the return of chain gangs. From 2002 to 2004, Hodgson charged inmates and pre-trial detainees a $5 daily “room and board” fee; a class-action lawsuit that made its way to the Supreme Judicial Court found that Hodgson did not have the authority to charge it.

In more recent years, Hodgson drew criticism for offering to send inmates from his facilities to the Mexico border to help then-President Donald Trump build a border wall; for reporting his church to the Trump administration for distributing information about migrants’ legal rights; for “substandard” conditions at an ICE detention center that saw the facility shut down during the Biden administration; and for an unusually high suicide rate at the county’s facilities.

Heroux has master’s degrees in criminology from the University of Pennsylvania and international relations from the London School of Economics. Before his run as Attleboro mayor, he served as a state representative for five years. Heroux took the sheriff’s office midway through his third consecutive mayoral term.

Heroux said he is willing to serve up to two six-year terms as sheriff, but would decline to run for the office beyond that. He said he blanket-supports term limits for executives, and wants to improve the county penal system, leaving it better than he found it so others can continue the work.

"At the core of what we do in corrections is God’s work," Heroux said. “It’s about working with people who might not ever had that first chance in life, who many in society have disdain for. It’s about giving hope to families of the incarcerated. It’s about giving a sense of purpose for the people who work in corrections.

“I may have been one side's candidate, but now I’m everyone’s sheriff.”

Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: New Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux takes oath of office