Bristol County seeks $27 million to close 148-year-old Ash Street Jail
Heroux shared his funding proposal with The Light for the first time, providing new details about the work needed to close Ash Street and its estimated cost. Five of the state’s 13 other sheriffs who run jails — Franklin, Berkshire, Dukes, Essex and Worcester — also shared their applications with The Light. Franklin, Dukes and Essex counties each requested $30 million or more, while most counties that did not share their applications requested less than $10 million.
“I want to get out of Ash Street,” said Heroux, who has advocated for closing the jail since he campaigned for office in 2022.
Heroux said in August that Ash Street lacked the staff and resources to safely hold some people with medical needs or at risk of suicide. Fewer than 15 officers work weekend night shifts, he said, and the jail’s structure makes it difficult for them to keep a close watch on detainees. The Light previously reported that Ash Street’s layout makes it difficult to see into a cell unless one is nearly directly in front of it.
Heroux said his previous requests for help from state legislators had been unsuccessful. “I don’t expect to get anything at this point. I have been disappointed for the last three and a half years with the lack of attention that I’ve gotten.”
The funding competition, the first of its kind in Massachusetts, will be decided by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, or DCAMM, which oversees state buildings and construction. DCAMM closed applications in January for renovations at sheriffs’ facilities through the state’s Capital Investment Plan. Funding decisions remain pending, according to DCAMM, as the agency works to account for new state controls on sheriffs’ spending. DCAMM acts like the state landlord and its responsibilities extend beyond jails, to state offices, college campuses and other public facilities. Sheriffs’ needs are one part of that workload, and now they also face new financial controls.
The Legislature enacted those controls this summer in the fiscal year 2027 budget, following a critical report from Inspector General Jeff Shapiro’s office. Section 112 of that budget directs the state Executive Office for Administration and Finance to limit sheriffs’ hiring and spending through fiscal year 2031 and to establish procedures for large capital expenditures. If an office broke those rules, or ended fiscal year 2027 with an unexplained deficit, it would come under a Sheriff Fiscal Oversight Council that would report monthly on finances and building projects; under certain conditions, the council could restrict spending or appoint a receiver.
Shapiro’s June report described the sheriffs’ budget process as “chaotic with chronic underfunding and illegal overspending” and added that Ash Street Jail should be closed. “If the county could resolve the issues at its main facility, it could close the Ash Street Jail and consolidate operations in Dartmouth,” the report said. “Consolidation would almost certainly result in immediate cost savings due to reduced payroll, utility, and maintenance costs.” Shapiro’s report did not include recommendations for capital improvements for any other county.
To close Ash Street, Heroux says he needs a place at the Dartmouth House of Correction for pre-arraignment detainees — people arrested outside court hours who must be held until arraignment. Bristol County’s application asks for $11.8 million to upgrade four housing units at the Women’s Center in Dartmouth to take in new arrestees, and $2.2 million to turn its unused kitchen and dining space into a 3,000-square-foot intake center for them. A corridor would be renovated into a secure sallyport to provide access to the intake area. Another $5.3 million would renovate two housing units in Dartmouth’s main jail building whose cells also lack plumbing, combining 96 cells into 48 larger cells with toilets and sinks, requiring changes to walls, concrete floors, sewer lines and ventilation. Construction totals $19.4 million; DCAMM’s standard 40% markup for design, equipment, contingencies and other expenses brings the request to little over $27 million.
The housing work would add in-cell toilets and sinks, detention doors, electronic locks, individual showers and fire-safety systems. The intake center would include holding cells and space for booking, searches, interviews and bail processing. “This move will offer many benefits to the local police departments, including a streamlined and more secure drop off procedure,” reads the proposal. “We would put the (pre-arraignment) detainees in the space currently used by women,” Heroux said, “but we just have to put locks on doors and toilets in cells to do that.”
The proposal states that “Fifty percent of the cells on the Dartmouth campus do not have locking cell doors,” and argues that locking doors are essential to keeping staff and inmates safe. “For the BCSO this proposal addresses this serious safety issue, which is not faced by any other jail or house of correction in the state. The BCSO is seeking renovations that will bring it to the same level of security as other jails statewide.” The approximately 46 female detainees currently housed at the Women’s Center would be relocated to a unit in the main Dartmouth jail complex. Since 2023, Heroux has urged state legislators to fund improvements at Dartmouth so he can close Ash Street, according to email exchanges reviewed by The Light; state lawmakers had told The Light they wanted a more detailed cost analysis, and the proposal provides the first comprehensive breakdown of the work Heroux says is needed.
Other sheriffs face the same limited pot. Among the contenders is a jail even older than Ash Street: the Dukes County jail on Martha’s Vineyard. Dukes County requested $34 million to renovate and expand its jail and house of correction in Edgartown, built in 1873, which holds people arrested by the island’s six police departments and other agencies, according to the proposal. The jail takes in about 850 arrestees a year. The office cites deteriorating additions, structural and fire-safety problems, and inadequate space for housing and programs. The project calls for renovating 5,500 square feet, building 5,450 square feet and demolishing 3,530 square feet. “As this facility is located in Edgartown, it is the only regional lockup, jail, and house of correction that exists on the entire island of Martha’s Vineyard,” the proposal states. “Dukes County Sheriff’s Office has been operating out of this facility since the late 1800s and have adapted the facility over time to the best of their ability. The building is now in need of significant repair so that it can continue to safely serve the community of Dukes County.”
The Worcester County Sheriff’s Office requested $24.7 million. More than $16 million would go to renovate modular housing units at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston. The application says the units have water infiltration, mold, deteriorating exterior walls and outdated mechanical systems, lighting and fire alarms. Renovations would cover about 89,000 square feet and improve accessibility. The proposal also includes demolishing a former tuberculosis hospital nurses’ home on the jail’s campus, built in 1933, which housed inmates from 1985 to 1993 and contains asbestos and other hazardous materials. The proposal does not address the demolition cost.
“Although this request was formally submitted in January 2026, the project has been in development for several years,” Eric Eisner, communications director for the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in an email to The Light. He said the modular buildings, constructed in the 1990s, had exceeded their estimated useful lifespan despite ongoing repairs. “This work will improve the overall quality and condition of the housing, address the effects of aging, and help ensure the buildings remain safe, functional, and sustainable for years to come,” he wrote.
Franklin County requested $33.2 million to overhaul its historic Old Main Jail in Greenfield, which houses people in minimum-security, work-release and pre-release programs. Built around 1886, Old Main remained in use for lower-security housing after a newer building replaced it as the county’s primary high-security facility in 2007. The proposal calls for roof, window and masonry repairs, replacement of the steam heating system, and accessibility and fire-safety improvements, including an elevator, accessible bathrooms and sprinklers.
Essex County requested $29 million to overhaul approximately 15,440 square feet of kitchen and dining space at the Middleton jail. Built in 1990 as a temporary facility, the food-service area has become a permanent part of jail operations, according to the application. The office cites cracked and uneven floors, drainage problems, aging equipment, accessibility barriers and blind spots that make supervision difficult. The project would improve the layout and replace equipment within the existing footprint.
Berkshire County requested about $13 million to renovate deteriorating showers and replace two aging cooling units at the Berkshire County Jail and House of Correction in Pittsfield. The application describes leaking shower enclosures, poor drainage and inadequate hot-water circulation, along with mounting repair needs for the cooling equipment. Both projects were identified in a 2019 facility condition assessment, according to the application. DCAMM previously funded a $1.3 million phase of shower renovations.
Hampden County requested $3.8 million to repair the exterior of the housing towers at its main facility, and Hampshire County said its $9.3 million request would fund a complete overhaul of its jail campus’ camera system. Hampden and Hampshire did not release their applications. Six other county sheriffs declined to release the proposals and did not respond to The Light’s request to provide a brief summary of how they would use the requested grant funding. DCAMM has released a list of the grant amounts each sheriff has requested, but no details of what the requests are for.
“There’s never enough money in the DCAMM capital project budget to support everything that everybody needs,” said Patrick J. Cahillane, the Hampshire County sheriff and president of the Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association. Cahillane said he does not know when DCAMM will announce its funding decisions, but does not expect an announcement before December. He said safety should guide those choices. “I’ve been in the corrections business now for almost 50 years,” he said, adding that “our responsibility is to ensure that we have a safe environment for both our staff and the inmate population,” including facilities designed and maintained to prevent suicides as much as possible.
If Bristol County is denied funding, Heroux says, he would have to choose between continuing to operate Ash Street despite its condition or refusing all arrestees from local police departments. Heroux said continuing to repair Ash Street is not an option: despite millions spent on structural repairs, insulation, windows and doors, the jail remains drafty, with deteriorating brickwork, leaning walls and inadequate heating and ventilation, according to Bristol’s application.
Refusing arrestees would worsen an already tense relationship with local police chiefs. Heroux currently refuses some detainees with medical and mental-health problems after screening; records obtained by The Light show such refusals rose to 135 in 2025 from 32 in 2022, and 110 in the first ten months of 2026. That practice has strained departments, chiefs say. Without funding, Heroux’s second option would be to stop accepting regional arrests entirely. “I bring back just the regular inmates and not do the regionals anymore,” Heroux said. That would leave 20 local police departments, including New Bedford’s, to find somewhere else to hold arrestees awaiting arraignment. In 2025, Ash Street Jail took in more than 2,900 arrestees.
Closing Ash Street would save the sheriff’s office about $11 million in otherwise essential repairs, while moving operations and staff to Dartmouth would save an estimated $4 million a year in forced overtime costs, according to the proposal. Heroux said in August that Dartmouth would be a much better option for arrestees, citing “a more robust medical operation here in Dartmouth.” Consolidating the two facilities would also save money on utilities and maintenance, Heroux said. The proposal lists Ash Street’s assessed value at about $7 million and suggests that, once vacated, the property could serve a much-needed purpose in New Bedford: housing. “The Ash St. jail does not serve the needs of modern correctional care, but the site could serve the greater community and the Commonwealth by providing much needed space for housing production,” reads the proposal. Once the building is vacated, Heroux said, it goes back to the state, and New Bedford’s mayor and city council should then tell the state delegation what they want to do with the site.
This story was originally published by The New Bedford Light and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.