New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the population in jails and prisons across the state must be reduced to protect prisoners from COVID-19. As a result, about 30 individuals in Bristol County correctional facilities had their bails reduced or extinguished and are now back out in the community instead of behind bars. Among the charges faced by these individuals are fentanyl trafficking, assault to rape, possession, and distribution of drugs, assault, larceny, armed and masked robbery and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
“I believe the people of Bristol County have a right to know the backgrounds of these people who are no longer behind bars because of this court ruling,” Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson wrote in his introduction to the Prisoner Release Alert System. “All of these crimes were committed in Bristol County.”
The BCSO will continue to update the Prisoner Release Alert System if more county inmates or federal ICE detainees are released due to court actions surrounding COVID-19. The graphic can be found on the BCSO website, www.bcso-ma.us.
Currently, no inmate or detainee in a Bristol County correctional facility has tested positive for COVID-19 as all six tests of symptomatic individuals have come back negative. Of the four staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19, two have recovered and returned to work, and the other two are expected back soon.
