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The
Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
March 17 - March 23, 2005 Edition
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Jail for whom? March 17, 2005 Dukes County needs a new, larger, modern, efficient jail to replace the Upper Main Street, Edgartown facility that was built in 1873. The jailbreak last month underscores this need. In 1873, the average daily inmate population was one or two. Now, the ancient building, with trailers and additions, acts as jail, house of correction, and county lockup for all six Island towns. Its capacity is 36 inmates. Islanders and summer visitors generally occupy the beds, but sometimes miscreants from other jurisdictions spend their jail time on the Vineyard. Sometimes they are violent felons with long records of conviction and incarceration, unlike most of the jail's usual customers. Sheriff Michael McCormack doesn't always get to choose which off-Island criminals get to spend time under his control. The new, larger, modern, efficient jail he'd like to build may end up hosting more imported felons than is the case now. And as Island residents consider plans for a new county jail, the possibility that a larger facility will attract greater numbers of dangerous felons must be part of the calculation. The escape last month of Sean Garvey, 23, puts the issue in focus. Mr. Garvey, who was captured the morning after he broke out, was being held at the jail in lieu of bail, following his arrest by Oak Bluffs police on Jan. 16 on a variety of charges, including assault and battery on a police officer. But he had been introduced to the Vineyard a few years earlier in his felonious career. Mr. Garvey has appeared in court 14 times since October 1998. The list includes district court appearances in Hingham, Marlborough, Quincy, Framingham, Waltham, and South Boston. Among his various crimes, Mr. Garvey was charged with larceny of a motor vehicle, assault and battery on a police officer, threatening, trespassing, possession of burglarious tools, assault with a dangerous weapon, and breaking and entering. Certainly, not someone we want as a neighbor. But in 2001, Mr. Garvey, in Norfolk Superior Court on charges including unarmed robbery, burglary, larceny of a motor vehicle, and operating under the influence of alcohol, was sentenced to 18 months in the Dukes County House of Correction after his conviction. When he got out, he kept a court date elsewhere in Massachusetts, but then he returned to the Vineyard, where he was arrested again. “Most likely there had to have been a concern raised at time of sentencing for the individual's safety for the judge to sentence him directly to another facility…. It often has to do with enemy issues where the individual came from,” Sheriff McCormack told Times reporter Ezra Blair last week. Last week, Mr. Garvey was not the only off-Islander in the Edgartown jail. Of 30 inmates four came from off-Island facilities. The Dukes County sheriff explains that prisoner transfer works both ways. He sometimes transfers some Island prisoners to off-Island jails. Mr. Garvey's escape lends support to Sheriff McCormack's argument that a new jail is needed, and immediately. Mr. Garvey's presence in the Dukes County jail means the new facility must be designed to strengthen the sheriff's hand in limiting the importation of criminals of Mr. Garvey's sort. |
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