Daniel E. Bosley  of North Adams, a candidate for Berkshire County sheriff has renewed his call for a regional lockup facility to assist state and local police. A regional detention facility would give local communities a place to detain people arrested in their local communities, he said. 

Bosley said many smaller Berkshire County communities don’t have facilities to detain people when they are arrested. "In smaller communities, this hampers our public safety efforts. In larger communities, it is cost effective to use a regional facility."

Weekend arrests are particularly troublesome and costly for local departments, he said. "Imagine having to pay a local employee to watch over someone arrested for an entire weekend. Now multiply that by several communities, add the savings for cities and towns if the sheriff’s department transports their prisoners and you can see that a regional facility makes sense."

Currently, the configuration of the Berkshire County House of Corrections doesn’t allow the sheriff to accept arrests from the local police in all circumstances. Women are particularly difficult to provide for because they need to be housed in separate areas, according to the candidate.

"Currently, we don’t have the room or flexibility to take people from the police on a consistent basis. We need to work with local communities to have a facility that provides services for state and local police, save money for taxpayers, and makes us safer," said Bosley.

The current state representative added that we have ample land on the present site that houses the BCHOC and noted that his experience on the Bonding and Capital Assets Committee in the Legislature gives him the experience to work with government officials and Department of Correction personnel to build a facility.

"There are people in government looking at consolidation of Department of Corrections programs and that gives us an opportunity to work with them to develop capital plans and funding for a regional facility. With my expertise in this area, now is the time to add a regional lock up to the sheriff’s services," he said.

"This is just one of the new ideas that I have been talking about as I travel around Berkshire County talking about my candidacy. People deserve to hear our ideas and plans as well as our experience in this campaign."