To the editor:

Through the many years of his tenure as Sheriff, Thomas Hodgson has demonstrated that he would rather perform the duties of other officials’ rather than the one he was elected and sworn to do.

From offering to send his employees to police Fall River, building the wall for Donald Trump, spying on local Catholic churches for Stephen Miller, assisting the federal government in pursuing and deporting immigrants, providing Covid sniffing dogs to public schools and chairing the presidential campaign for Trump in Massachusetts, he has consistently indicated that the superintendency of the Bristol County House of Correction is not worth his time, energy and the taxpayer’s  money.

Untold tax money has been spent on Hodgson’s publicity seeking travel and participation in white supremacist meetings, conferences, and rallies: none of these activities accruing to the benefit of the community that elected him, nor necessary to manage his facilities effectively or efficiently.

Apparently, being anywhere but the Bristol County House of Correction provides more opportunity to pursue  his  personal agenda and feed his unquenchable thirst for attention. 

Always repeating the mantra that he is “keeping the community safe,” provides Hodgson with a cloak of patriotism and seeming concern for his constituents.  But in reality the neglect of his duties has caused higher recidivism, suicides, threat to the health and welfare  of the incarcerated, his employees and their respective families.

Betty Ussach,

Dartmouth