The Bristol County House of Corrections and Ash Street Jail may soon be consolidated to the Dartmouth campus, according to Sheriff Paul Heroux.

The Ash Street Jail in New Bedford, which Heroux has likened to a “money pit,” needs over $3.8 million of work for its structural issues, and currently requires a $35,000 “band-aid fix” to secure its annual occupancy permit, Heroux said. 

“It would not make sense to spend $3.8 million on a facility that costs us about $5 million a year to run,” he added. Therefore, he is proposing to consolidate the two campuses to the state legislature, which will require some “retrofitting” of unused space on the Dartmouth campus at a cost of approximately $3 to $4 million.

Heroux said Rep. Chris Markey and other state senators and representatives have pledged support of this plan. 

The Ash Street Jail cannot close until the regional detainees, sentenced inmates and inmates awaiting trial are moved to the Dartmouth campus due to staffing issues, Heroux added. 

While the approximately 80 inmates can be placed with those already in Dartmouth, the 10 to 20 detainees must be kept separate, he said.

Thirty-five correctional officers would be needed on a weekly basis to staff the Ash Street Jail facility for detainees alone, which are people who were arrested by local police departments and held until they can appear before a judge in court, Heroux added.

All the municipalities in Bristol County, except Attleboro, use the regional detainee program as most police departments don’t have the capacity, he said.

Several rooms, including a kitchen, on the Dartmouth campus that are currently used for storage would meet this need once retrofitted for holding cells, he said.

A total of 30 holding cells would be constructed, with individual toilets, and the divide for areas between men and women as well as inmates and the detainees, which requires no sight and no sound, would be reinforced, he added.

Heroux emphasized this move would be made both for safety and to save money. 

Approximately 50 correctional officers, depending on retirees, who regularly work at the Ash Street facility would be moved to the Dartmouth campus, increasing the security-staff-to-inmate ratio, he said. This will decrease forced overtime and increase morale.

With this staffing the facility would “just operate more efficiently,” he added.

The programming available to Ash Street inmates would be doubled, with the Dartmouth campus offering about 100 hours worth, “which helps with reentry, decreasing recidivism,” Heroux said.

He added there would be no net gain in calls, with this plan reducing the number of Bristol County cells by nearly 200.

In order for this plan to happen, Heroux said he is seeking financial support from the state to hire a firm for the redesign of the areas for detainees, which is estimated to cost $750,000. Then, he would need the funding for construction once a final number is determined, which he estimates to be in the “single-digit millions.”

Once Ash Street inmates and detainees are transferred, the state can sell the property and the Sheriff’s Office will no longer spend about $700,000 on utilities and maintenance. Heroux emphasized he is only a tenant of the building and the state should decide what happens to the property.

“The estimated costs for this project are modest for the gains we get,” he added.

If the state doesn’t provide the funds for this project, Heroux said, “we continue to operate in a very inefficient manner — that's not good for the inmates, the [correctional officers] or the taxpayers.”