Cocchi defends role of sheriffs at the State House
Hampden County's Sheriff Cocchi is the Vice President of the Massachusetts Sheriffs Association.
He spoke at the meeting, repeating a similar refrain to previous meetings, saying incarcerated people must receive professional help for any mental health issues before any other issues–including criminal activity–can be addressed.
'Then and only then, when the mental health is stabilized, the substance abuse now is being recognized and we're starting to do the treatment and the therapy on the substance use side of things, then and only then can we do behavior modification,' said Sheriff Cocchi.
Sheriff Cocchi noted that re-entry to society after serving time is a hot topic across the country and that Massachusetts has been honing re-entry services for nearly 3 decades, but there's still work to do.
'It's certainly a new concept, but I can tell you we have not perfected it. It is not perfect. We continue to try to refine with the times, with the incidents that are happening in the community, with the suffering that happens,' said Cocchi.
Cocchi, joined by several fellow sheriffs, pointed out that far more individuals move through the sheriff system than the state Department of Corrections, but the Department of Corrections receives significantly more funding.
This group of law enforcement and lawmaking officials was established in the last state budget and will continue to meet throughout the legislative session to discuss the future of the correctional system.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
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