BOURNE — Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings discovered himself answering one query time and again this previous yr.
Regardless that his time period does not finish for an additional 15 months, was he contemplating a run for an additional six years as county sheriff?
He knew the reply. At age 72, after practically 50 years in regulation enforcement and finishing his fourth time period in workplace as sheriff, Cummings knew it was time to retire, one thing he introduced this week.
“I obtained bored with answering the query, plus I understand how powerful it’s to run for a county-wide seat. I assumed it was time to get it on the market,” Cumming stated Thursday.
Born in South Boston, Cummings went to elementary college in Dorchester, highschool in Weymouth, did two years energetic obligation within the U.S. Navy, then grew to become a Massachusetts State Police officer.
He and his spouse had already moved to Falmouth by the point he placed on the uniform and Cummings subsequently served 21 of his 23 years as a state police detective assigned to the Cape and Islands District Lawyer’s Workplace.
In 1998, Cummings was 49 and he’d reached the utmost grade to stay on the Cape. He was a Detective Lieutenant and his subsequent promotion to captain would probably be a desk job off-Cape.
“I wasn’t going to retire. I had two youngsters in faculty,” Cummings recalled. The late Phil Rollins, who was district lawyer on the time, satisfied Cummings to run for sheriff.
“The preliminary plan was one time period till the children obtained out of faculty, however I loved (being sheriff) a lot and it was such a improbable employees that I stayed for 4 phrases,” stated Cummings.
He oversees the Barnstable County Correctional Facility in Bourne and has 280 individuals on his employees with an annual price range of $30 million. The primary main undertaking he tackled was the development of the brand new jail.
When Cummings took over in 1999, the county home of correction on the county advanced in Barnstable Village was underneath a courtroom order that capped its jail inhabitants as a result of extreme overcrowding. Outdated and cramped, the jail was constructed to carry 78 however contained 318. A state-appointed particular grasp was overseeing the state of affairs.
“Inmates have been sleeping in Quonset huts and tents. They have been sleeping on the ground of the fitness center,” Cumming stated.
After a web site on the Massachusetts Navy Reservation — now known as Joint Base Cape Cod — was chosen, Cummings stated he helped persuade state officers to double the $20 million proposed for a jail with 200 cells for 318 inmates, to construct one that might accommodate practically 600 prisoners.
Cummings stated there have been round 450 inmates pre-COVID and 181 now.
After working for many years on investigations, together with 21 homicides, that put individuals in jail Cumming stated he’d discovered {that a} correctional establishment could not assist everybody, “but when we get one or two to straighten out their life, that is positive, and we had many greater than that.”
In his time as sheriff, the mission of the jail system shifted from warehousing inmates to rehabilitation. The brand new correctional facility provided Cummings the house and the employees (he employed 100 extra correctional officers for the brand new jail) to do extra programming to take care of issues of psychological well being, dependancy, substance abuse, schooling, and re-entry into the skin world.
“We have grow to be a drug and alcohol rehabilitation middle. There’re all kinds of programming relative to these points,” Cummings stated. “It nonetheless irks me that, on the psychological well being facet, that there is no such thing as a method to ship these individuals to get therapy.”
The correctional facility employees additionally arrange a re-entry program to assist inmates get adjusted following their launch. It contains medical insurance, treatment, entry to jobs and housing with two “restoration coaches” to supervise the transition.
About 500 inmates have obtained their highschool diploma or equivalency whereas in jail, stated Cummings, one thing they’ve seen as a significant component in retaining them out of jail.
What actually frustrates him is that solely 40% of inmates reap the benefits of these applications. Sixty p.c select to sit down of their cells, counting the times.
“We won’t drive them, although we all know we will help them,” Cummings stated.
Over his practically 23 years in workplace, Cummings has labored to develop the function of the sheriff’s workplace, generally with criticism that it was increasing past its mission. He argued that his workplace was responding to the wants of smaller cities.
The sheriff’s division had a communications middle earlier than Cummings nevertheless it has since expanded to offer dispatching for eight Cape city fireplace departments and reply 911 requires 10 cities.
The service proved controversial when Cummings’ workplace determined to cost the hospitals and ambulance firms for the dispatch service, one thing that he stated has been resolved and is working nicely.
Whereas bigger cities corresponding to Yarmouth and Barnstable have their very own canine models, most Cape cities do not have the canines that may find individuals or conduct narcotics investigations and the sheriff’s workplace supplies canines and personnel by means of a particular response workforce.
“Every time they name, we go,” Cummings stated.
The sheriff’s workplace additionally created a hostage negotiating workforce with the cities of Mashpee and Falmouth that’s within the technique of coordinating with the regional regulation enforcement council workforce to reply to these crises after they come up on the Cape.
In a protracted profession as sheriff, a few of Cummings’ applications raised eyebrows and provoked protest.
The enlargement into marine regulation enforcement and patrol, using $450,000 from the federal port safety program to buy a 31-foot vessel listed as a chemical, organic, radiological, nuclear and explosives detection vessel, led many to query why Cummings was increasing into territory coated by native harbormasters and the U.S. Coast Guard. Outfitted with sonar, infrared and thermal imaging cameras the vessel is also used for search and rescue.
Harbormasters protested about mission creep, however Cummings stated the vessel has labored out nicely and added a particular response unit educated in boarding ferries whereas underway, one thing the Coast Guard has stated it will do.
Others decried Cummings’ coverage of looking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement databases to find out whether or not an inmate was within the nation legally, then working with the federal company to provoke deportation procedures. It ran counter to the sentiment that it unfairly focused immigrants for punishment earlier than they have been confirmed responsible.
“I have a look at it as my job to maintain the individuals of Barnstable County secure,” he stated. “If an individual got here right here illegally and dedicated against the law, why do we wish them right here?”
In 2005, a Instances investigation discovered that the sheriff’s workplace had a dues-paying county deputy sheriffs affiliation with round 300 women and men, many distinguished within the Cape group and companies, who have been sworn in and carried a badge. Many had made political contributions to Cummings’ marketing campaign.
On the time, Cummings denied it was an “outdated boy community,” nevertheless it took three years and a courtroom determination for him to launch the listing.
“I’ve no regrets,” Cummings stated. “I used to be lucky to have two nice careers and nice individuals to work with on each jobs. The individuals in corrections who work listed below are simply wonderful. They get little or no credit score for what they do.”
Contact Doug Fraser at dfraser@capecodonline.com. Observe him on Twitter @dougfrasercct.
