WBSMBy Kate RobinsonMay 17, 2022 The state’s highest court has affirmed today that Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson is legally authorized to collect revenues for his office through phone service fees. A May 2018 lawsuit taken by four people against Hodgson and county telephone contractor Securus Technologies had claimed that payments from the contractor to the sheriff’s […]
SJC says sheriffs can charge commissions for prison phone calls
Court leaves issue up to Legislature Commonwealth MagazineBy Shira SchoenbergMay 17, 2022 MASSACHUSETTS SHERIFFS HAVE the legal authority to raise revenue from contracts for inmate phone calls, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday. Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, whose office was at the center of the lawsuit, called the decision “a win for taxpayers.” “In […]
Bristol County Report On Inmate Suicides Leaves Out Key Details
WGBH and New England Center for Investigative Reporting March 18, 2018 By Chris Burrell and Jenifer McKim Nine months ago, Kellie Pearson was driving in Fall River when she got a frantic call from her daughter telling her to call the Bristol County jail immediately. Pearson dialed and got an officer at the jail. “I knew,” […]
Lawsuits add up over Bristol County jail inmate suicides
March 9, 2018 The Boston Globe By Jenifer McKim and Chris Burrell Barbara Kice wants justice for her son, who hanged himself in 2015 in the Bristol County House of Correction. The jail, all by itself, accounts for more than a quarter of county inmate suicides statewide, and Kice thinks she knows why so many die: […]
Critics: Hodgson’s plan to send inmates to build Trump’s wall ‘absurd’
By Brian Fraga Enterprise News January 6, 2017 FALL RIVER – Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s offer to have inmates build President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed border wall generated national headlines and plenty of reaction Thursday in the press and in social media. The sheriff’s critics say that was all by design. “It sounds to me […]