Rebecca Brodie Announces Run for Middlesex County Sheriff

By SUSAN PETRONI (Patch Staff)

FRAMINGHAM, MA - Rebecca Brodie has announced she is running for Middlesex County Sheriff against incumbent Peter Koutoujian. Brodie made the announcement Wednesday morning at a press conference at Mass Bay Community College.

Brodie is the first ever female candidate for this office.

In January 2011, Koutoujian was appointed by then Governor Deval Patrick to fill the term of former Middlesex County Sheriff James DiPaola, who resigned and later committed suicide in 2013.

For Brodie, a Holliston resident, making the announcement at Mass Bay Community College had some personal significance.

Brodie was told she could “Start Here, Go Anywhere” when she enrolled as a single Framingham mother on welfare. Brodie took the school’s motto to heart; finishing her associate’s degree before continuing on to become an attorney, author, and advocate.

Brodie had planned to unveil her next endeavor Wednesday; a total overhaul of the Massachusetts Correctional System, at a press conference at MassBay Community College’s Framingham campus on Flagg Drive. Instead, this is when she made her announcement.

“The current correctional system isn’t working. Massachusetts, along with many other states, is being sold a bottle of “snake oil”… and we keep buying it,” said Brodie, who has a law practice in Holliston.

Massachusetts spends half a billion dollars per year on incarceration so why do our inmates return home unprepared, asked Brodie.

In any other profession, taxpayers would see a bill for $53,000 (the average annual cost for incarceration) and demand better results, said Brodie.

As prison reform continues to be a hot-button topic around the country, Brodie said she believes Massachusetts is finally ready to stop making incarceration decisions based in fear.

“The most exciting thing about prison reform is that society does not need to wait for a new invention or discovery; we already know works and what doesn’t. We simply need to stop doing things that don’t work and start using practices that do work. This includes ending solitary confinement,” said Brodie.

Brodie said Massachusetts needs to implement evidence-based practices and use a multi-disciplinary approach.

Research shows that the current system used in Massachusetts is making things worse – worse for inmates, worse for correctional officers, worse for communities, worse for taxpayers, said Brodie.

“We have the ability to create a correctional system that is better, safer, and cheaper than our current system- the real question is why haven’t we done it already?,” said the attorney.

This story is developing and we will bring you more information as it becomes available.