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Rich McCarthy
(413) 858-0126

For Immediate Release

SHERIFF ASHE SPEAKS ON HIS HOPE FOR NEXT SHERIFF

Sheriff Michael J. Ashe, Jr. has issued the following statement regarding his
successor as Sheriff:
As I enter my forty-second and final year of being granted the privilege of
serving as Sheriff of Hampden County, it is my hope that whoever succeeds me as
Sheriff will continue a practice that I believe has been vital to the success that all of
us working together have built.
Specifically, I believe that one of the most important practices that I
instituted as Sheriff was to be the first Sheriff of Hampden County ever to invite the
nations first and foremost professional correctional organization, the American
Correctional Association, to come into our facilities regularly to evaluate us.
It is, I strongly believe, vitally important that my successor, whoever he or
she may be, continue this practice of regular, objective, national audits of our
policies, practices and procedures.
My experience has shown me that the fact of our Hampden County Sheriffs
Department correctional facilities being awarded 27 consecutive scores of A+ (95%
or higher) on these national audits has been valuable in allowing our citizens to
determine if we as a county are living up to our determination to strive for
excellence in our county correctional system.
I also strongly believe that inviting the local media into the exit reports of
these national evaluators in the interest of transparency should be continued. Indeed
it was because of this transparency regarding evaluations that our local media was
able to inform our citizens that national corrections expert Major Carlos Jackson of
Colorado reported that I havent seen better anywhere in the country; that

national evaluator Julie Von Arx of Indiana stated that It is probably the best
facility that Ive ever been in; or that national auditor Gary Gremillion of
Louisiana said, This is without a doubt, the most professional, the most progressive
Sheriffs Department that Ive ever seen in my life.
As we begin the final year of the election of a new Sheriff, it is my hope that
the new Sheriff, whoever he or she may be, will continue this practice that I began of
inviting national, objective audits regularly and of inviting local media in to know
first-hand the results of those audits. I believe that a Sheriff owes that to the citizens
that have entrusted him or her with the operation of our countys correctional
operation.