We reported previously that BCCJ requested the sheriff’s travel documents from 2014 through 2018. We are concerned about the amount of time Tom Hodgson spends running around the country promoting himself and his anti-immigrant agenda while neglecting horrific conditions in his own jail.
In light of this we do not believe that the sheriff can be expected to provide humane treatment and necessary services either to the routine prison population or to ICE detainees. There have been multiple reports of abuses of ICE detainees (here and here and here) and violations of their civil and Constitutional rights. In addition the sheriff is also connected to far right hate groups, including one founded by a white supremacist.
We have informed state officials of our concerns, with no results. So in May 2018 we filed an information request with BCSO. You can obtain what we have received to-date here.
There are glaring gaps in the records, with obvious omissions. The documents we did receive paint a picture of a sheriff spending weeks every year pursuing his private agenda on the state’s dime.
We need your help going through the 574 pages of information we currently have. We are asking independent journalists and investigative reporters, the local press, the state auditor, and anyone interested, to go through the data, supplement it with your own information requests, cross-check it with actual media appearances Hodgson has made (which don’t appear in the collection), and calculate a total dollar amount that taxpayers have been stuck with for the sheriff’s many ex-curricular activities. Please contact us with anything you discover. Thank you!
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