MICHAEL ASHE
WESTFIELD – Michael Ashe, for thirty years the Hampden County Sheriff, has announced his decision not to run for re-election.
First elected in 1974, Ashe has been elected without opposition five times for six year terms but said in a recently released statement that his “time of life has come to step aside and let those who come after me have the high honor of serving as sheriff.”
He said that he chose to make his announcement during the middle of his term to allow those who aspire to the office he is leaving to have the time “to steep themselves in learning the real work of administering a corrections department.”
Ashe, who has been a major political player during his career, stated very clearly that he is not supporting any candidate for sheriff and has “chosen no so-called ‘anointed successor’.”
He pointed out that he naturally has great interest in the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office and will watch closely the selection process but said that he will “stay open and “let those who seek the office not just demonstrate their political acumen and ambition, but, more importantly, the idea and abilities that they would bring to the job.”
He stressed that he will “make myself available in the months ahead to all who are considering seeking the office of sheriff, regardless of party affiliation or non-affiliation, to acquaint them with what I have learned on the job.”
Ashe promised to “move swiftly and surely” to counter any “misconception” that, “because I spoke kindly of a candidate in the past when he or she ran for, or held, another office, I am supporting them for the office of sheriff”, should such an erroneous impression, “purposely created or not”, arise
He did say that if a candidate emerges who he believes has distinguished himself or herself “by their grasp and vision and passion and capabilities for the job” he will make that belief known “to those who may be interested in what I think.”
In his statement, the outgoing sheriff offered his “profound and undying gratitude” to the many persons who supported and worked with him during his tenure and especially thanked his brother, Jay Ashe, who, he said, “gave up a promising career … to answer my plea to join me in building the national model of correctional programming we have put in place.”
Ashe, a Springfield native, has been innovative in his tenure in office both creating programs to support inmates after their release and to help them contribute to society and by taking decisive action when he thought necessary.
A day reporting program started in 1986 has been copied across the nation and helps offenders re-enter the community by allowing them to live at home for the final portion of their incarceration while being closely supervised and supported by correctional staff.
In 1990, Ashe drew attention to the overcrowding at the York Street correctional facility when he sent correctional officers to commander the National Guard armory on Roosevelt Avenue in Springfield and used it to temporarily house a number of minimum security inmates, a move which contributed to the effort which resulted in a new Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow.
The website of the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association, which Ashe served as president, reports that a post incarceration program Ashe instituted to help released offenders during their first months of freedom was the first of its kind in the nation.
Ashe also introduced several other programs to help offenders return to the outside world including treatment of substance abuse issues at the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center, an inmate education program which allowed more than 4,000 inmates earn a high school equivalence certificate, a community service program for minimum security inmates, a prison industries program and even the Armory Street Grille, a restaurant at a local technology park which is staffed by inmates under the supervision of correctional staff.
