Middlesex Sheriff Says No to Inmate Labor for Trump's Mexico Wall

Bristol County might be sending its inmates to the border to help build Donald Trump's wall against Mexico, but Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian made it clear Thursday there's no chance of that happening in his county.

Koutoujian said in a statement that Bristol County Sheriff' Thomas Hodgson's proposal "misses the mark." Hodgson offered up prison inmates to help build the wall as part of the "Project N.I.C.E." program at his inauguration Wednesday.

"I can think of no other project that would have such a positive impact on our inmates and our country than building this wall," Hodgson said at the ceremony at Bristol Community College. Hodgson was re-elected to a fourth term in November.

SEE ALSO: Trump's Mexico Wall: Bristol Sheriff Offers Inmates to Build It

But Koutoujian said given the limited window for inmate rehabilitation, he would like to use the county's resources to help prisoners prepare to re-enter society and continue to improve public safety.

Read Koutoujian's full statement below:

"This is not something we would consider at the Middlesex Sheriff's Office. With an average length of stay lasting less than a year, we have a brief window of opportunity to address the factors, including substance use and mental health disorders, that lead to a person’s incarceration. I would rather use the scarce resources and time we have to offer evidence based programming that has been proven to help inmates prepare for reentry and enhance public safety.
At a time when we are having a serious conversation in this state about criminal justice reform and ways to reduce recidivism, I feel that this proposal misses the mark."

Image submitted by the Middlesex County Sheriff's Office