UPDATE: On January 5, 2017, the ACLU of Massachusetts submitted a public records request to the Bristol County Sheriff's Department asking for documents to shed light on his proposal to have Massachusetts inmates help build a border wall. Click here to view the request.
Bristol County Sheriff Hodgson’s proposal to use the labor of the men and women in his custody to build a border wall is perverse, inhumane and likely unconstitutional. It has nothing to do with helping people in Massachusetts, and we hope his constituents join us in demanding a retraction.
Not only is Sheriff Hodgson willing to get involved with Trump’s racially discriminatory plan to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, he is proposing to use modern-day slave labor to do it. The men and women incarcerated at the Bristol County House of Corrections are mostly poor people and people of color. The idea of sending them to build a wall to keep out other people of color who are fleeing violence or devastating poverty is abhorrent.
If Sheriff Hodgson follows through on this shameful plan, the ACLU of Massachusetts is prepared to use every tool in our toolbox, including litigation, to stop him.
Media:
- Washington Post: Trump wants a border wall — and this sheriff is offering to have his inmates help build it
- Boston Globe: Bristol Sheriff offers inmates to build Trump’s Mexico wall
- Mic: Massachusetts county sheriff suggests inmates build Trump's wall
- Esquire: We Talked to the Sheriff Who Wants Inmates to Build Trump's Wall
- Boston Magazine: Bristol Sheriff Offers Inmates’ Help Building Border Wall
- MassLive: ACLU of Massachusetts calls plan to use inmates to build border wall 'modern-day slave labor'
- WCVB: Walsh: Sheriff's wall plan '100 percent political’
- The Blaze: Massachusetts sheriff offers inmates to help Trump build the wall
- Reuters: Massachusetts sheriff offers prison inmates to build Trump's wall
- Commonwealth Magazine: Hodgson’s off the wall idea
- Fox25: Local sheriff offers to send inmates to build Trump's border wall
- CBS: ACLU Calls Sheriff’s Proposal For Inmates To Build Mexican Border Wall ‘Perverse’
- Yahoo: Massachusetts sheriff offers prison inmates to build Trump's wall
- WLNE: Bristol County Sheriff offers to send inmates to build Trump's wall
- South Coast Today: ACLU: We'll do whatever it takes to stop Sheriff Hodgson's plan
- Metro: Massachusetts sheriff offers prison inmates to build Trump's wall
- Vibe: Bristol County Sheriff Suggests Using Inmates To Build Trump’s Wall
- Berkshire Eagle: Bristol County Sheriff offers inmates to help build Trump's wall
