The Ash Street Jail and Regional Lock-Up, located in

New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American p ...

, is a jail for inmates awaiting trial from Bristol County, MA. The Ash Street Jail is one of the oldest operating jails in the United States. It is a medium to a maximum-security facility. Every year this facility has 4000 bookings, with a daily average of 200 Inmates. Inmates range from low-level misdemeanor offenders to those being held and awaiting trial for violent crimes such as robbery, rape, and murder. Sheriff Thomas Hodgson is the current Sheriff of the facility. The facility holds over two hundred prisoners. Most prisoners are awaiting trial, while others are serving sentences of 2 ½ years or less. The facility provides in-house programs for education and parenting courses, substance abuse programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, anger management, and religious services and bible studies.

History

The Ash Street Jail was built in 1888 on the site of the New Bedford House of Correction which was the former New Bedford County Jail built-in 1829. It is currently overseen by Bristol County

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

Thomas M. Hodgson. Although he has been heavily criticized for keeping the 180-year-old facility open, he felt keeping the facility opened is a better idea as jail should be a place that "people don't want to return to." Due to the alleged unsafe conditions, including the absence of automatic door locks, the jail has been the subject of

lawsuits - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...

. The facility has also had multiple riots, one in 1993, where more than 100 inmates set fire to several buildings in the facility as well as a riot in 1998, where inmates smashed toilets and sinks in their cells and threw excrement at guards.

Notable inmates

At one point, the infamous

Lizzie Borden Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was an American woman tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. No one else was charged in the murders, and despite ost ...

was held and detained in the former Sheriff's Home beside the Ash Street Jail during her trial. Lizzie Borden stayed in the matrons' quarters at the Ash Street Jail, but only for the 12 days that she was on trial.

References

Jails in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in New Bedford, Massachusetts {{US-prison-stub