1.3.2023 - Inauguration Ceremony of Paul Heroux Bristol County Sheriff

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I had the pleasure of getting to know many of you in the audience as a volunteer for Paul hero selection for Sheriff and would like to take a moment to thank all of the volunteers who dedicated their time and energy to making this event a reality

I would also like to thank all of the elected officials who are able to be here today and I'm reading handwriting and I apologize if I get any of this wrong Shane Virgo New Bedford counselor at Large Naomi Carney New Bedford counselor at Large John Bullard former New Bedford mayor Gus Bickford chair of the mass Democratic Party Alan Sylvia Fall River representative Kerry Hill executive director Mass

Sheriff's Association Tony Cabral state representative Paul Coogan the mayor mayor Joe Ferreira Governor's Council Carol Doherty representative of third Bristol representative Adam Scanlon James Eldridge state senator and William Galvin Secretary of the Commonwealth if you are able please stand for the presentation of Colors by the Bristol County Sheriff honor guard and following

that join us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance

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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all oh God

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oh right thanks you all may be seated

we'll now hear from another Paul Fall River mayor Paul Coogan prior to taking office as mayor in 2020 Paul Coogan worked in Fall River Public Schools for over 30 years and served on the school committee mayor Coogan was re-elected in 2022 thank you for your support in this event mayor Coogan uh first of all I want to tell you what a privilege it is for the city of Fall River Fall River Public Schools and all

the people that came out tonight to see this very very honorable gentleman sworn as in as our next sheriff in Bristol County it's a very very special day for us and I hope that today going forward a new leader in Bristol County Sheriff's department will inspire us all to work hard every day to make Bristol County and in my case the city of Fall River a better place to live and you won't

and you all know how I talk short simple and sincere and I do believe that the former Sheriff who served for 25 years has relinquished his administration of Bristol County Sheriff's Department to former forever and forever which we wish he was former Attleboro mayor Paul hero going forward his administrative experience will put our Sheriff's Department on a good track he knows how to run a city so he'll know

how to run a sheriff's department I believe the ideas I've spoken with him about work release for men Rehabilitation programs in his jail and a lot of good positive things in the community throughout Bristol County will go a long way to seal his his position as a strong leader in the Bristol County Sheriff's department and a strong leader in Bristol County and I wish him nothing but the best success and I thank

everyone for coming out today welcome to Fall River

thank you mayor Coogan we are grateful to have you with us we will now have New Bedford High School sophomore student Elliot Talley play a piano selection

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thank you Elliot now for the event you are all gathered for we are grateful to have William Galvin Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts here to swear Paul Haru into office take the oath of office yes sir is a three plotto three Oaths you'll put your name appropriately in the office's Sheriff of Bristol County raise your right hand I well um do you saw me swear do you solemnly swear that I will faithfully

and with I'm sorry I will with due faith and intelligence allegiance to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the Constitution thereof

I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform that will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties all the duties incumbent on me incumbent on money as Sheriff as Sheriff Bristol County according to the rules and regulations according to the rules and regulations best of my abilities and understanding to the best of my abilities and understanding of the Constitution of the

Constitution and laws and laws of this Commonwealth of this Commonwealth I so affirm I so affirm aye aye Paul hero do solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that will support the Constitution of the United States congratulations sure

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thank you very much let me first apologize for my hoarse voice tonight I got caught in a couple of rainstorms and it hasn't helped but I want to say what a privilege it is for me to come here tonight and begin this new chapter not only in Bristol County but certainly in the corrections of Bristol County and Corrections in Massachusetts I have known Paul since he was the member of the House of Representatives I

knew him as Mayo work at them on a number of issues I will tell you that when he called me earlier this year to tell me he decided to run for Sheriff my response was I think you're crazy but in his explanation in response he demonstrated to me what I probably should have already known his passion and commitment to the things he really cares about his commitment to concerns about corrections and

reciditism and improving the lives of people who've found themselves on the wrong side of the law and also most importantly to the justice and the issue that we have here in Massachusetts and here in Bristol County I knew when he told me he was running it would be a diligent and difficult campaign but no one should ever estimate Paul herreau I know you are a part of his effort

it was a hard-fought fight that he won I think we've now turned a Paige I'm sure he's going to bring the same energy and creativity to this office that he's brought to so many other places I'm sure he'll do you proud in his term Sheriff of Bristol County I'm delighted to be with you tonight I'm like an itinerant soaring in person however I have many other places to go so I'm not going to

be staying for Paul's remarks but I am delighted to be part of this important chapter in Bristol County History I congratulate not only him on his election and taking the oath of office but all of you on his selection thank you foreign thank you Mr secretary it's Bill Galvin so my name's Paul hero it's nice to see all of you um before I get started I actually want to give a shout out to uh three people

three different people that are here which is kind of a surprise I was quite pleased to see them but um you know one of them is a set of people and that's my sister and her two daughters from New Hampshire is of you know fortunately we want to give a wave to everybody so it's my

that's my sister Lynn she's my older sister from uh New Hampshire and so thank you for coming down and I also want to recognize something I'm looking at right now one of my professors from the Kennedy School uh David King David wave so Dave and I actually some people say we look a lot alike there's a picture of us from 2009 when I was at the Kennedy School and it was in the Dave actually

teaches the new members of Congress course so every new member of Congress he meets and uh you know gives them a little introduction a little crash course so what we some people say we look a lot alike so thank you so much for coming down today and there's another person my fourth grade teacher where are you Miss Hopkins where'd you go there you are my fourth grade teacher Miss Hopkins

so out of all my time in School Miss Hopkins fourth grade was the only year that I never missed a single day of school she was the only teacher that I showed up for every single day in high school that certainly was not the case so um and you know to Elliot you know uh just also give you a shout out you know I wish I could say that I taught you how

to play the piano but the only musical instrument I play is the radio so um so I have uh just a few remarks I want to make it's uh not going to go on all night it's just I'll warn you now it's just 1300 Words which is supposed to be about 10 minutes so there will be an end in sight if you feel like I'm going on and on so good evening and thank you for being

here tonight first I'd like to thank the following who made this inauguration possible mayor Coogan and his staff chief of staff and O'Neill Souza so thank you thank you the Secretary of State Bill Galvin who just swore me in as well as his office staff Nancy Driscoll who's also an Ottawa resident to them thank you for uh also being here this evening Fall River Public School Superintendent Maria

pontus and Fall River School District Chief Operating Officer Ken Pacheco so thank you to you as well the inaugural planning so the inaugural planning committee Marlene Pollock Alex Houston Rafael Pizarro and all the participants on the stage so thank you all for being here I'd like to thank the Bristol County Sheriff's Office Honor Guard this is our first operation together and I'm sure we

will have many more thank you gentlemen also like to give it a shout out to my former colleagues at the State House the state delegation of State reps and Senators who were introduced earlier it's really nice to see you here tonight so thank you for coming over especially Jamie Eldridge you had a long drive down from Acton I believe Acton that's a hike that's a couple hours from here so thank you so

um I'd also like to thank Sheriff Hodgson for his 25 years of service in this role for being a professional and a Gentleman during this transition and for personally giving me a tour of the jail prior to my arrival tomorrow morning thank you I want to thank the people who worked on my campaign team spreading the word to families and friends putting up signs knocking on doors having sign Holdings

at busy intersection meet and greets and phone calls and so much more thank you for all you did thank you from the remarks if there was any one element of this campaign missing if any one thing like Betty hadn't organized the sign Holdings or Laurie hadn't done the house parties or anybody else if any one element was missing we might not have won this was a really close race to so to all the

volunteers I didn't win this we won this together so thank you this was a movement for change a movement that was empowered by so many people and voters yet the pundits said couldn't be successful the volunteers and the impassioned voters were the elements that the experts overlooked this election demonstrates like so many elections that the people determine who was elected that we can make a

difference and that we can make history and thanks to all of you for making that happen this election was about change the people of this County want to see some changes in the sheriff's office I ask that you be patient with those changes waiting for those changes I've heard the concerns I've recorded everything now I'm going to address those concerns I take things seriously but I do not overreact I'm going to act

on things that can be proven and I'm going to be fair to the staff of the Bristol County Sheriff's Office we have a lot of work together to do together I'm going to make some changes I'm going to keep some things the same please remember that I never make decisions alone and that everything I do always has a reason behind it this is how I've always operated as mayor and for the most part

it's kept me out of the newspaper is a good thing the Bristol County Sheriff's Office is responsible for the care custody control and Rehabilitation of inmates it's responsible for the employment conditions of hundreds of employees I've stated in the recent past that I'm going to be modifying the organizational structure of the system that starts at the top with Senior Management this is

going to be similar to what I worked under while working at the Philadelphia prison system as well as the Massachusetts Department of Correction in my previous two Corrections jobs there was a commissioner and then there were several Deputy Commissioners each responsible for a different subject matter and Corrections for example we'll have a director of security director of budget and finance a director of

administration I'm also going to have a fourth direct report and I'm saying this first time with the public for public consumption I'm going to have a director level position and this is going to be a director of inmate services this is a person who would report directly to the sheriff who oversees matters concerning medical food education Rehabilitation programs discharge planning other similar

concerns that we need to address in an effective manner this would be an experienced administrator with a history of running a facility specializing in Mental Health Medical Care addiction and other like services I campaigned on many things I campaigned on that I'm going to measure our rate of recidivism I did this before when I was working in the Philadelphia jail system took me many months but it was actually

at the time it was probably the second largest recidivism report done in the country it was 235 000 rows of information of inmate emissions and discharges over the seven year period of time I looked at and I'm going to do the same thing here just not nearly as large of a system procedurally this is straightforward and it won't take much time to do I also campaigned on measuring the

effectiveness of programs intended to reduce recidivism I will do exactly that this is not an academic issue this is about Public Safety consider that inmates are often paroled based in part in their participation on treatment programs intended to reduce recidivism if our programs don't work someone not ready for release May go out and do something no one wants countless people are released and reoffend to varying

degrees it's impossible to about a thousand and by that I mean it's impossible for us to believe that everything we're doing right now works we we can't say that about any organization find where it was it's critically important that we know what we are doing if what we are doing is effective or not this isn't a republican ideal it's not a Democrat ideal this is just about good government

a few correctional facilities in the country measure outcomes we will expand on what works reform or eliminate what does not work we need to be appropriately self-critical procedurally this is a lot more complicated than just measuring the regular rate of recidivism and will require more time but it can and will be done I've heard that many services are being offered I've also heard that many

services are not being offered and I won't know to the degree to which until I get an up close look if it's not already being done we are going to set inmates up with housing health care and a job these are the pillars of successful prisoner re-entry

but one thing for sure is that services offered under me are going to be made public to a degree that we have not seen before publishing numbers is not just an academic exercise it's about reporting on our efforts in a meaningful way that will give the public full confidence that we are delivering results I'm also going to look closely at the high rate of suicide I've never promised

to stop all suicides but it is my hope that we can reduce the rate during the campaign I said I'm going to bring in qualified outside help to help look at this and I will do just that

I'm also going to invite people to tour our facilities tours are an educational opportunity I want anyone interested in seeing and learning about the conditions of confinement to have that opportunity something I did not campaign on but I'm going to pursue is a program to recruit homeless veterans to work for us I want to work with local organizations to get these veterans housing and health care

and train them in a profession Corrections I will work with our local State Legislative delegation to help make this happen look forward to working the gentleman please

when I took over as mayor I built on the work of the previous mayor I continue to work with initiatives and started my own new initiatives and to do that here I tend to do that here I will do this job knowing that someday I will no longer be the sheriff and whoever succeeds me will build on the work that I have done that is the goal if we think we are already doing the

best we can there is no room for improvement we need to always strive to be better it's what our Founders meant when they said we need to always strive for a more perfect union I won't be sheriff for life I've told people that I was going to be sheriff for one or maybe two terms and then I'll move on after I just leave things on a high note hopefully that's how I think that things should be

done at the core of what we do in Corrections is God's work it's about working with people who might not have ever had that first chance in life who many in society have disdained for it's about giving hope to the families of the incarcerated it's about giving a sense of purpose to the people who work in Corrections it's about giving Pride to the people who live in our community that we are doing

something that although they may not see is a benefit to them and their loved ones the election is over I may have been one side's candidate but now I am everyone's Sheriff whether you supported me or not I hope you like the work that is done and the the results are delivered time to get back to work tomorrow thank you for coming tonight

uh before you take a seat Could you actually remain standing if you're able um congratulations Sheriff hero uh we will now hear from New Bedford counselor at large Shane Virgo saying America the Beautiful and remain standing as the Bristol County Honor Guard retires the color

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put it plain a man America God shed his grace on me and Crown thy good with Brotherhood from sea to shining see here all right

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Sheriff hero we are excited for what the future holds under your guidance and we are confident that you will serve the people of Bristol County with integrity and dedication as Sheriff that concludes our ceremony have a great night and thank you for joining us