The sheriff of Bristol County says now is the time to close New Bedford’s Ash Street Jail, which opened in 1888.
Sheriff Paul Heroux has called for the jail’s closure before, but now he says he’s looking for legislative support to fund moving Ash Street’s approximately 100 inmates to the main county jail in Dartmouth.
The upfront cost would be $10 million, but it would pay for itself in less than three years, he said. Bringing Ash Street correctional officers to the Dartmouth jail would save about $4 million a year in overtime, and the move would save $800,000 annually in utilities and maintenance, according to Heroux.
He said he’s been advised to apply for a state grant, “which frustrates me a little bit” because a grant is far from guaranteed. He believes the money should come from the state budget, but he plans to pursue both simultaneously.
“Everything after two-and-a-half years is further savings to the taxpayers. So there's no good argument why we should keep Ash Street open,” he said.
To move the inmates from Ash Street, cells in three Dartmouth jail units would need a lock on each door and in-cell toilets, which account for much of the upfront cost. Fully half of the Dartmouth jail’s 22 housing units do not have locks on individual cell doors.
“I'm not even asking to put locks on all of them at this point,” Heroux said. “I'm just saying, let's just do three of those 11 housing units. You let me do that, and I can close Ash Street, and we can start saving the state some money.”
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said he has no objection to closing the jail, but the city has higher priorities in the state budget.
“We're building new schools and public safety facilities, as well as port facilities and a number of other things that require state capital investment,” he said. “So this one isn't exactly on the top of the list, but again, [the Ash Street Jail] will need to be replaced at some point.”
Heroux suggested the state-owned Ash Street property could be used for public or private housing, a museum, or a park. He said planning for the parcel’s future should belong not to the sheriff’s office, but to city officials, local legislators, and the neighbors, because the sheriff’s office would not be involved in the new use.
But Mitchell said the city will not embark on a planning process without a timeline of closure for the jail.
“If we knew what was going to happen in six months, we would start that planning process in earnest,” he said. “But if it's 10 years from now, it doesn't make any sense for us to start thinking about the future of the building. We've got plenty of other fish to fry right now.”
