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Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux has been trying to close the Ash Street Jail for years. Why is it taking so long to secure funding?
The Ash Street Jail in New Bedford currently houses about 90 inmates. It is also home to rodents and recurrent mold, according to a December 2025 state inspection, which found 120 total deficiencies. The jail, built in 1888, has plumbing and hot-water issues and gaping cracks in parts of the red-brick facade.
Heroux began to advocate for closing the Ash Street Jail shortly after he took office in 2023. But Heroux says he needs $10 million to $20 million from the state to do it — and after 3½ years, he’s still waiting.
Heroux proposes moving Ash Street’s inmates to the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction in North Dartmouth. The facility has the room — it has 1,100 beds but currently holds only 475 inmates.
The problem, Heroux says, is that the Dartmouth complex isn’t safe enough. The cells in half of the housing units don’t have toilets, and as a result, don’t lock. (Locking someone up without a way to relieve themselves violates the U.S. Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.)
Inaction or lack of communication?
Heroux is currently seeking a grant to fund the renovation from the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance — or DCAMM.
He said that he applied for the grant about six months ago and was told the winners will be announced this month.
But a DCAMM spokesperson couldn’t offer The Light a specific timeline because the state is “still reviewing its approach to addressing the capital requests submitted by the sheriffs.” The Light’s public records request for a copy of the sheriff department’s grant application was denied because the grant is still in the “pre-award stage.”
Heroux said he is only seeking grant money because he has been asking the Legislature to fund the renovation through the budget, a supplemental budget, or a bond bill for over three years, to no avail.
“It’s not a priority to them,” Heroux said. “You can quote me on that.”
New Bedford’s lawmakers see it differently, telling The Light they support closing the Ash Street Jail.
“I’m not sure what [Heroux’s] referring to,” said Rep. Antonio F.D. Cabral, D-New Bedford.
Rep. Christopher Hendricks, D-New Bedford, took office long before Heroux was elected as sheriff. The delegation toured Ash Street Jail in January 2023 and discussed funding a formal study of consolidating it with the Dartmouth complex. But they “haven’t had many discussions [with Heroux] since,” Hendricks said.
Last year, Rep. Christopher Markey, D-Dartmouth, sought over $92,000 to study the “cost and feasibility” of renovating the Dartmouth facility through an amendment to the fiscal 2026 state budget. Cabral and Hendricks cosponsored the amendment, but it didn’t make it into the final budget.
Markey didn’t attempt to file the amendment again in this year’s budget.
“It was a large amount of money, and I know I can only go to the well so many times,” Markey said. “If there’s alternative ways to do that, I look forward to it. I’ve told [Heroux] all along that I think we need to do something with Ash Street. … I just think we need to get a real number.”
According to Cabral, Heroux has always needed to work with DCAMM to secure funding, because the renovation is a capital improvement project. The agency would assess the project’s cost, which has been a sticking point for the Legislature.
“If we don’t know the exact amount, how are we going to do a legislative bond authorization?” Cabral asked. “Is it $10 million? Is it $5 million? … There’s not enough information to make that determination.”
Only Markey said he’s spoken to legislative leaders — the Judiciary chair and the House Ways and Means office — about Ash Street Jail. Sylvia and Cabral said they can’t raise the issue with leadership before the project has a definitive price tag.
But in light of the Inspector General’s report on Massachusetts sheriffs’ spending last month, Markey said it’s “probably not the best time for sheriffs to be trying to get a ton of money.”
The report found that the sheriffs’ budget process is “chaotic with chronic underfunding and illegal overspending.” Massachusetts has 14 sheriffs’ offices, funded by the state.
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Heroux previously told The Light that his office is not overspending and all of its funds go toward necessary operation costs and inmate services. The inspector general’s report said the Ash Street Jail should be closed and the Dartmouth facility renovated.
As a freshman representative, Rep. Mark Sylvia, D-Fairhaven, said he can’t speak to Heroux’s history with the Legislature. But he noted a lack of efficient communication on the subject during his time on Beacon Hill.
Sylvia said he told Heroux he would write a letter of support if Heroux pursued grant funding. But after The Light informed him that Heroux had applied for a grant six months earlier, Sylvia said he had never been asked to provide one.
“I don’t think it’s been a question of us not prioritizing this issue,” Sylvia said. “I think it’s a combination of let’s all get together, let’s lay out the steps and figure out who can do what. And I’m not sure that that’s necessarily happened.”
Legislature’s leaders mum on funding jail
The Light asked House and Senate leaders whether they intend to fund the Dartmouth facility renovation this session or the next, but none provided a clear answer.
House Speaker Ron Mariano’s office asked whether there is a bill about Ash Street Jail before the House.
Senate President Karen Spilka’s director of press operations referred The Light to Michael Rodrigues, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which crafts the Senate’s budget.
A spokesperson for Rodrigues deferred the question to Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, as a “matter of form” because Rodrigues doesn’t represent New Bedford. Much of Rodrigues’ district, including Westport, is in Bristol County. Montigny didn’t respond to requests for comment.
House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Lawmakers’ lingering concerns
Each local lawmaker who spoke to The Light also raised concerns about what to do with the Ash Street building if it no longer serves as a jail, a question they have been asking for years.
Markey described it as “a prime piece of real estate,” but Hendricks has a more measured outlook.
“We don’t want a giant gaping hole in the middle of that neighborhood,” Hendricks said. “In a working-class neighborhood like that, that would be the last thing we would want to happen.”
Heroux previously floated ideas of turning the jail into apartment buildings or a museum — often described as one of the oldest continuously operating jails in the country. But ultimately, he said, it’s not his job to figure that out.
Jamie Perkins is a graduate student in journalism covering state government for The Light as a summer intern. Email them at jperkins@newbedfordlight.org.
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