To the Editor: In the Berkshire County Sheriff's Race, the main issue is clear: should inmates be shipped long distances to Chicopee at taxpayer expense, against their will and away from their families and of their lawyers instead of being housed in our own Berkshire? County Jail and Reformatory?
Our current sheriff started this discriminatory program and refuses to end it. If he doesn't end this unjust agenda against local women, Berkshire County voters should stop him by voting for Alfred "Alf" Barbalunga as sheriff. He has pledged to end this discrimination by bringing female inmates back to our local prison in Cheshire Road. This will reduce transportation costs and help women successfully transition into society. One of the original reasons our current reformatory was built was so that female prisoners could be housed in Berkshire County and not outside the county.
Please join me and other progressive Democrats in voting for equal treatment for female prisoners by voting for Alf Barbalunga as Sheriff.
Patrick Gable, Pittsfield
The author is an attorney who was formerly an assistant attorney for Berkshire County and an assistant attorney general for Massachusetts.