Bristol County Sheriff Campaign Donations Under Scrutiny

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson received more than $324,000 in campaign donations from businesses with financial interest in county correctional facilities, according to a new report from national organization Common Cause.

The report, published Tuesday, reveals a large number of potential conflicts of interest in campaign contributions for sheriffs nationwide.

Hodgson features prominently in the investigation, published jointly by the watchdog group and the coalition Communities for Sheriff Accountability.

The report examines "potentially conflicted donations" from incarceration-specific businesses to sheriffs' election campaigns in 11 different states since 2010.

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Bristol County is highlighted as an example in the very first sentence, which notes that more than 30 inmates have died while incarcerated in county facilities in the past decade.

The report states that Hodgson received more than $12,000 in campaign donations from CPS Healthcare, which provides medical care to inmates at his jails in Dartmouth and New Bedford.

But an anonymous inmate alleges that medical care at the facilities are inadequate.

This appears to be a pattern nationwide — and the apparent conflicts of interest are often perfectly legal, according to the report.

The Bristol County Sheriff's Office was not immediately able to respond to a request for comment.