Cameras capture damage after disturbance at Bristol County jail

May 1, 2020 10:27 pm

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. (WLNE)- Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson showed news cameras broken glass, smashed sinks, and washing machines ripped from the wall at the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center at the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday. He says ICE detainees caused the $25,000 in damage during a disturbance there Friday night.

Ira Alkalay, an attorney for four of detainees, says he was on the phone with one of his client during the chaos.

“He said that they were afraid to die,” Alkalay said.

The attorney claims the detainees are concerned they will get infected with COVID-19 in the facility and should be released.

“They’re in a very dangerous situation just by virtue of being there, without any social distancing, and with such poor sanitation,” he said.

Sheriff Hodgson disputes the notion that the facility is unsafe.

“We’ve had no COVID-19 cases here,” he said. “So why is everybody pushing the panic button as though there’s this big pandemic inside our facilities?”

In fact, the sheriff says last night’s incident started because multiple detainees initially reported COVID-19 symptoms but then refused to get tested.

Hodgson says they violently confronted correctional officers, and barricaded themselves in, causing the damage.

Correctional officers used pepper spray to disperse the detainees. Those officers were not injured. Three detainees were sent to the hospital.

The sheriff says the rest of the detainees have been moved to single cells to wait for disciplinary action, COVID-19 testing, and criminal charges.

Congressman Joe Kennedy and Senator Elizabeth Warren are among the politicians calling for an investigation of the incident.

But Hodgson says that rhetoric is making the problem worse.

“I don’t worry about the critics,” said the sheriff. “But what I do worry about is what they’ve been doing that’s raising the risks of harm to my staff, and to the people we’re charged with care and custody of.”