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street sellers on al-jazeera. you know having. the record thomas hodgson has been the sheriff of personal county massachusetts for over twenty years you get one to look at it oh yeah and then just very for yet another of those he's responsible for the county jails overseeing more than twelve hundred inmates not a. good. little buddy. going to take you to him and show you the classroom or know if we have people who get ten different classes when i first came here they had t.v.'s in the cells the inmates could smoke basically would get almost as much food as they wanted and i believe

that that that was the formula for failure. i believe that taking the tv's away taking away the weights which they had. giving them with sound attritional meals but not as much as you want. and making sure they're focused on the opportunity to go to programs was the way to go. share of hodgson may look like any other law enforcement officer but sheriffs or politicians elected by voters. with the office comes considerable power. which includes how they run their jails already in. jail should never be a country club and anyone who spent time in our facilities will tell you beyond the third of this thing from a country club and we know our approach is working you can be one hundred miles or even fifty miles apart between two different jails and your experience will completely different and be completely based on who is the sheriff and i county.

there are over three thousand sheriffs across the country and there's a wide spectrum in how they do their job. hutchins' tough on crime approach may play well elections but it raises concerns by critics who are worried about the living conditions for an mates sheriff hodgson has done many things to humiliate prisoners and to deprive them of basic comforts putting them in chain gangs out on the street cramming them into small cells having them sleep on the floor charging five dollars a day for the privilege of staying in his facility. many shares don't have term limits and once through elected there are very few checks on their power however in most cases no one can fire them. in this episode of fault lines we look at what can happen when the power of a sheriff goes unchecked. they have this huge amount of autonomy huge amount of up in the pendants huge amount of authority they make decisions that really

dramatically affect people's lives including life and death questions that always. breen's problems when you have a lot of authority and not a lot of accountability. for. what thomas hoshko is the longest serving sheriff in massachusetts but in recent years he's made news for the high suicide rate and the shelves human behavioral units where. there's could more control over the inmates we also sometimes will conduct but we call eyeball watches here you have an officer sitting watching that person the if they feel that there's a potential risk for so little it doesn't mean this show they're going to commit suicide but they may have suicidal ideations when we're told that we are working

with mental health put them on a watch word officers just watches them the whole time. so this off. through the saw him to sit in this chair and just monitor the person that's inside that cell for their own safety. mental health watch is so punitive at bristol county it's worse than solitary confinement you're put in a cell with what's called a fergie here a suicide smock and no clothing you're watched constantly by corrections officer who's period got you through a window that's it twenty here in that cell twenty four seven that kind of response to suicidal feelings is what stops people from reporting it to begin with bonnie to a real there was a lawyer with prisoners legal services in boston organization is suing sheriff hodgson for housing mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement when you have serious mental illness you should not be in solitary confinement for more than a brief period of time and what we say in our lawsuit is they don't have the

procedures in place to make sure that doesn't happen. the suit also alleges that prisoners in bristol county jails are not getting adequate mental health treatment . we met a group of former inmates to ask them about their time in bristol county jail some of them are still in the criminal justice system and don't want to show their faces for fear of retribution if your mommy asked how many guys here actually attempted suicide while they were at that jail. how many guys were thought about suicide while they were in that jail. everyone how many how many of you guys were on meds when you went in there everyone was on meds when you went in there when you went in there were you able to stay on your meds if they get the meds you need to know i don't know enough and you know if you feel yourself slipping emotionally or or mentally and you need mental health help what's the process what do you do to get

it right right that you pray we have to go you have to feel this sick calls. they spoke i think they have. one or two or three days to get back to you but sometimes i used to go weeks and weeks and i have to. put it in like one every day every day until they see me and so i was just about ready to hang get out. jochen for take was in jail in bristol county in two thousand and thirteen. he suffers from bipolar disorder. i don't know how hard it is just to. go to melbourne in tears in a soup kitchen. in jail and severely depressed choke him says he reached out for help while i wrote down the ladder i wrote down not to help department i let him know that i had been feeling really really suicidal. and that

i was going to go through with it. well. three days later i didn't have nothing back from them and then on that night i tried to commit suicide again they told me that they came and took me down they told me that they used those electric things to shock you back to life on and then. the back to help the fly me realize just guy is serious he's really trying to commit suicide. well at least eight people have committed suicide in bristol county jail since two thousand and fifteen. twice as many as other jails in massachusetts and three times the national average. we spoke to a woman whose partner of twenty four years killed himself while in bristol county

jail. she didn't want to shore face on camera. so this was actually have a photo that we used at the service. because it was one of my favorite. both of my. just because i look so grainy. michael ray was an inmate in bristol county awaiting trial in two thousand and fifteen he suffered from bipolar disorder and had substance abuse issues and i have thousands of letters not to lie i mean i have boxes and boxes of letters so i just grabbed a few he wrote to his partner about conditions in the jail telling her that his requests for help work nor doubt he said you have to tell people this isn't right. and that's just one i mean he says it is. and. in this one. he tells me this is dated october nineteenth two thousand and fifteen and he said i think i'm losing my mind and don't know what to do anymore no one asked about me.

for answers my slips for help i'm just talking. this is my only option of some kind of therapy is writing you i don't want to die. i'm sorry i don't want to die but i feel like i'm dying from the inside out already i love you so much and i don't want to leave you. this was again about the mental health he's seen no one and has put in three more slept since then and this was dated december fourth so i had been almost too much. sense he had quite enough left to literally selves like for months he's requesting it with your help support he's not getting it correct the one thing he says in all of his letters says that he wanted help and it never came on saturday june tenth two thousand and seventeen michael hanged himself in his cell michael is ultimately responsible for michael's actions

i would never say that. tommy hodgson is the one what i would say is i don't believe that that facility is ever going to change their practices as long as their leader is. mr hudson because i think that he really thinks that he does a great job. and that to me is so frightening and so sad. sure of hodgson said that no cases of suicide or attempted suicide were related to a lack of medical or mental health treatment. after the death of michael ray sure of hearts in order to internal investigation into the suicides of seven inmates between two thousand and fifteen and two thousand and seventeen. the report found that all medical mental health and security standards were met i don't think that an internal review is a substitute for oversight there's no watchdog that's saying let's look at these

practices in the counties and the. it's a real vacuum and self reporting can substitute for that you seem like a results oriented guy at the end of the day who should be held accountable for a suicide rate that this that high and that different than other jails in this day and across the nation if you could identify something. that would say that our system. is failed. that that in fact is the cause or that we just don't have. the level of interest in taking care of the mental health case or whatever it is look i'm responsible for everything happens here on the share so i am all to believe responsible for everything if you can identify what it is at what point do you got to step aside because you have the duty of care at that duty of care isn't being taken care of in you don't get why who gets to step in and say we just need a new team here well the put you all to believe the citizens do. i

think it's a problem when law enforcement policies and incarceration are governed only by popular opinion prisoners are protected by the constitution from that any kind of. popular impulse to unfairly punish i have never seen clear evidence that a sheriff faced serious electro repercussions for the treatment of inmates and their jails you know sheriffs and hold an incredible amount of power and are allowed to run the jails in the way that they see fit and we see a lot of abuses in that we don't necessarily see those abuses show up in the next campaign cycle. in large parts of america sheriffs are the only form of law enforcement into everything from morning to chills to patrolling the streets. but they also have

a dark history. here in the south sheriff played a violent role in the jim crow era and is suppressing civil rights activists in the one nine hundred sixty s. . to this day sheriffs are still a remarkably homogenous group they are ninety five percent male and ninety nine. sent. in two thousand and eight the parish of iberia in southern louisiana elected a new sheriff came forward he was a retired state trooper named lewis akhil saturday lewis echo sheer audacity. blaming the bottom for the top people on kevin broussard and whitney levy grew up here trek and a lot of blacks. because this is coming here when you get to like. street that's when the whites out of town starts share facal campaign on

a platform of reform but soon after his election he stripped away any internal oversight within the department. during his tenure ten of his deputies would plead guilty to federal crimes. in two thousand and ten a special unit to deal with what he saw as problem areas. it was called the impact team that was designed for waste impact was designed to naval when mpeg it's three it was best get out story. three everybody. gets three you go in because if you go in a bath if you get a call you'll be stopped and searched it was known that there were tuesdays and thursdays in. the get off the street to. become shares deputies would later testify to routinely beating up in making false arrest in the

west end. but the abuses of power didn't stop there. as whitney leave found out when he was awaiting trial the night birir parish jail in two thousand and fourteen it started out simple enough they'd come in and they were going to do searches and strip searching. clay burgess whitney lee's lawyer and has at least a dozen pending lawsuits against sheriff. the radio has had some pretty problems and medical they pull them out of medical become to be part of this shakedown side toward say oh say warren i got a good lover you treat me so i'll give it all to go assess the way they feel a yeah ok so actually you are but then the officers started commanding them to get on their needs. and i want to be gross and put your ass in the air for your girlfriend put your face down like you're praying for allah and you know just abuse general abuse but what is problem was when he was down in these positions he literally was having trouble breathing everybody got on up told us that a soccer can get out of

a mass arcade breed side and have agreed with the right stuff would have a soda rabbit he sowed you will you go get outside told us that now and i'm not you know so he grabbed my shirt and took out his listicle he hit me like about six seven times over the you know they became more and more frustrated as whitney didn't just crumble and cry and beg for mercy and the more we need not fighting back not resisting mage simply standing there calm which is just quite frankly remarkable as they are beating him. it infuriated so to the point they got so frustrated they backed up with a shotgun and shot a big beat beanbag bag round at him could be ten feet away the pain had to be enormous when you least sued di pieri a parish sheriff's office over the incident his case has recently been settled out a bit to a lot of things you know it kind of hurt you could i shot it but i never this

shadow it took me to go to jail having a shout as to be useless by the iberia parish sheriff's office started to come out the f.b.i. and the civil rights division at the department of justice started investigating so essentially what happened is you had you had everything from false arrest severe beatings in the jail to officers line under oath for convictions to them. dogs loose on prisoners and beating prisoners. i mean it's almost every crime that you can think of you know lying about evidence planting evidence literally beating people who are enemies of acol. after the department of justice investigated sheriff baca was charged with ordering the beating of mates in the jail the conspiring to cover it up. his trial took place in the fall of two thousand and sixteen it was moved to another town three hours away . produces and was one of the inmates in the chill that day in two thousand and

eleven. he's awaiting trial on a misdemeanor charge now he tells us he can no longer live with any sense of peace . scares against for the. you know i'm afraid you stopped in. zero zero zero zero zero of so that would have been going to be what his motive is you know i can't trust that and i fear that he would kill me shoot me beat me do something that happened to me two times a right is not going to happen up there. but it may happen to you and i very parish i would be the chapel and i run like this in the jail in the jail beaten down my neck adult. and. this is security camera footage from the jails recreation yard that day. the guards were doing the shakedown taking inmates out of their cells and searching for contraband. curtis says someone near him insulted the guards the deputies thought

the comic came from him lose apple walks in the door. frame is that this is business that apple tells of the stadium and obama. i'm like this although my brain algal comes the dog in my face but the dog moves on and. that's curtis it sure faculty feet. dog see a comic. see that he knew it dog. gets in a chapel. and cuffed him again. and got him against him tie in the south come in he comes in and comes in the room courage you know you give the man. for what was a man get on you in the right man all right you guy that i had when i doing that but you guys but tom program m m m m m m m that man come on man why are you doing there bro and then. i would. leave it in the ground.

on these on the ground and that is where they may have to if i'm not the mayor i didn't do it. so you not want to tell me oh no no boom it with it's all right he had a man with a piece. and i'm a bum and they may come or been brought in this way he went to work. and take it in any month of. course but. now. how. many years did there but not in maine fairburn well german live feed of the big meet up in the air on deck was the perfect fit i mean here on the mr mean or the lowest crime a person could commit they. were got to curtis mother dorothy o.

said that he had been beaten until she says it took her two days to pylea get the warden on the phone choose the morning i'll call back and then i asked finally spoke to aunt. and he told me missiles and i don't know who given you this information but nothing happened to curtis curtis is fine as it but i want to come over to helena see him for myself one no you can't come over here because it's against the n. this demand and you know you we can't just see him a sit well looks like i'm i have the ball a little bit further than you bought of allah maybe allah have later he called me back he said missiles and we're going to take him to the hospital silage me take him to the hospital i see is it that bad he said well he got a few scrapes this in there but we're going to take him to the hospital just to have them checked though. it was two days before curtis was taken to the hospital.

and had a fracture. broken. fracture rear. fracture of my kneecap from a baton aspic. while they take you to the chair because i sleep sound like. no god you want to prevent it by going to you know cameras cameras. his dog off in the chair so he could take you in there from there to hide spot to. the head is so planned out so good man and it was doing that was doing on a relative doing in the office and not very impressed with tell me that. a cup want to be to a bar. with no way. a cup. if i have it in its head as a dent in thing going on in my models who are refused to call the police but.

refuse akhil told them to do it after directed us to do it this way no other way way this. and that was you know in the studio a show of operate barrett i don't understand how certain are you that apple ordered the beating i heard him tell them. to deal with me hardly it was the car in the. during a trial of former deputy sheriff been with sal testified verifying the details of curtis a story he also said that acol ordered the beatings. sheriff baca was tried before a mostly white jury he was acquitted of all charges after the trial he blamed his deputies. want to get the disease did. was help but newman a rule through the iberia parish sheriff's office who went beyond the law. and you

know innocent people. when the drugs on innocent people and stouffer drug dealers to go. that is totally opposite of what i am in one of them. he declined our interview requests. would ten of ackles deputies behind bars for their crimes the city of new iberia has voted to replace the sheriff's department with a new police force. lou sacco continues on the sheriff of the parish and is still in charge of the jail. while we were filming in southern louisiana five more sheriff's deputies from nearby towns were arrested for beating prisoners. it's not shocking anymore there's no ripple effect there's no way there's no outrage i mean think about you're down here for just a number of days and two different departments within sixty miles of here five deputies arrested for abusing prisoners. i mean i would think in another part of

the country and maybe a bigger media market or whatever but i'm it made the news don't get me wrong but i don't i don't know for people that slow down for. even years after the assault in the jail curtis was and is still struggling to deal with the trauma i live like that i wanted a job i go to the ball as i want to move is you know have a baby i mean i know baby girl. i want i don't want to i want to know the day to day because of fear is all i want i want to know that she isn't in trouble that you can call the authorities headed me i want to live they did not meet. me up real bad may.

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