ACLU Calls Sheriff's Proposal for Inmates to Build Mexican Border Wall 'Perverse' CBS Boston
go to original January 5, 2017

Massachusetts sheriff offers inmates to build Trump's border wall (WCVB Channel 5 Boston)

A proposal by the Bristol County Sheriff to offer up inmates to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico is drawing fire from the ACLU.

“The idea of the project is just really perverse,” Laura Rotolo, staff counsel for the ACLU of Massachusetts, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Ben Parker Thursday. “It’s inhumane and it’s very likely unconstitutional, and it certainly has nothing to do with helping people, prisoners, families in Massachusetts themselves.”

On Wednesday, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson made the offer as part of his debuting of Project N.I.C.E., which stands for National Inmates’ Community Endeavors.

“I can think of no other project that would have such a positive impact on our inmates and our country than building this wall,” Sheriff Hodgson said at his fourth inauguration Wednesday night.

During the presidential campaign, Trump vowed to wall off the Mexican border, and make Mexico foot the bill, which some estimates put around $25 billion. Hodgson did not specify who would pay to transport the prisoners, or where they would live during the construction.

Rotolo said the proposal from Sheriff Hodgson was “not surprising.”

“It’s an abhorrent plan, but he has done inhumane things in the past,” said Rotolo. “He tried to bring back the chain gang. He tried to institute a plan where prisoners would have to pay the county to be incarcerated, which is something that the courts and the legislature have already rejected … Sheriff Hodgson is a vocal anti-immigrant person in Massachusetts, he likes to be in the national media, so we’re not too surprised to hear this from him.”

Read the rest at CBS Boston

Related: Sheriff Hodgson Will ‘Wait to See’ if Trump Wants Prisoners to Build Wall (Boston Herald)

Related: Should Inmates Build Trump’s US-Mexico Wall? (MyNorthwest.com)

Related: Trump Is Laying the Groundwork for His Border Wall Behind the Scenes (The Daily Caller)

Related: An Open Letter to American Rednecks (The Daily Banter)

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