All six of the Island’s towns formally recognized the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office as the Island’s regional lockup location, a step officials said was necessary to secure state funding for a service they have provided to the Island since the 1800s. The move strengthens the department’s case for funding amid statewide budget scrutiny on sheriff departments. This comes at the same time that the county police plan to modernize their aging facilities.
Dukes County Sheriff Bob Ogden spent the past few months visiting every Island select board to get approval of the regional lockup designation, and most recently, the Edgartown Select Board gave its approval this past Monday, June 15. Oak Bluffs approved the designation June 10, and Tisbury, West Tisbury, Aquinnah, and Chilmark also gave their approval.
Still, the designation needs to be formally accepted by the state. Though the local county jail already provides these services and has operated as a regional lockup for decades, state law hasn’t explicitly codified it, and the designation would clear up any confusion over budget, an issue recently flagged across Massachusetts by state investigators, and distinguish the facility’s discretionary and essential services.
The towns’ unanimous approvals, Ogden said, mean the designation is implied as a function of the sheriff’s office under Massachusetts law, but now they will present a bill to amend a law that only authorizes the sheriff’s office to operate as a house of correction and a jail.
“This will memorialize the function of lockup as part of our jail,” said Ogden in a message to The Times. “We want to be recognized as a branch of the jail function and continue to fund the service appropriately.”
An official designation of the jail, located at 149 Main St. in Edgartown, would formally acknowledge the sheriff’s statutory obligation to handle prearraignment detention services on-Island, protective custody, and short-term holding for arrestees who cannot be immediately released on bail or brought before a judge, and it does not require any additional local funding. The facility is also home to a house of corrections for inmates with longer stays.
“We want to make sure there’s a clear agreement from all towns that we are a regional lockup, so we can go back to the state and show them,” Ogden said in an interview with The Times. “This is a statutory, necessary obligation of the sheriff’s office on Martha’s Vineyard.”
If the towns didn’t grant the local sheriff’s office their approval, then towns would individually bear the responsibility of lockup services, a scenario Ogden warned was impractical.
“If we shut our doors, where would we put arrestees?” Ogden said. “There’s no place to put them. Look at any police departments on Martha’s Vineyard, there’s no place for them to provide a detention area. Not only do they not have the space, but they don’t even have the land to do it.”
The need for the designation comes as sheriff offices statewide are facing increasing scrutiny. A report by the Office of the Inspector General, released on June 1, said that deficits across all offices totaled $110 million in the year 2025. It also highlighted a pattern of chronic underfunding, illegal overspending, inconsistent accounting, and confusion over mandated versus discretionary spending and obligations. The designation, for example, would clear up concerns between mandated or discretionary spending.
“Because of all the scrutiny with the sheriffs and their spending, it has kind of put us under the microscope,” Ogden said. “We are trying to make the state understand this is not a discretionary function; this is a statutory obligation as part of our jail.”
Ogden said that the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office is unique in the Commonwealth, providing temporary lockup, jail, and house of corrections functions under one roof. Services include medical and mental health evaluations, food service, and around-the-clock observation.
“We run very lean,” Ogden said of the facility, but he also highlighted that because of its age, there are maintenance costs.
The designation also aligns with ongoing construction efforts to modernize the sheriff’s office facility in Edgartown. Phase one would include demolition of an obsolete 1985 modular unit of about 1,000 feet, Ogden said. It will be replaced by a new, 1,765-square-foot facility to modernize booking and intake areas, increased safety precautions, four high-security short-term holding cells, an ADA holding cell, and sight- and sound-separated cells to protect individuals from a vulnerable population. Still waiting on a bid, construction is expected to begin this fall, at an estimated total cost of about $8 million.
“We have an antique facility,” Ogden said in an interview with The Times.
Phase two, a $34 million capital funding request, is currently awaiting review, approval, and funding allocation through the commonwealth’s formal capital planning lifecycle. The secondary phase aims to demolish a 2001 temporary modular wing that’s about 2,930 square feet and replace it with a 5,450-square-foot addition. Plans include realigned 14-bed pretrial and jail housing, a separate four-bed house of corrections, dedicated medical and program spaces and services, and upgrades to the historic main building, such as a full fire sprinkler system, structural remediation, and energy-efficient windows.
Massachusetts State Rep. Thomas Moakley said the services that the jail provides are essential.
“I support the sheriff in this, and I am going to make sure the Island maintains its regional lockup and regional communications center,” said Moakley. “I don’t think Dukes County was one of the problem counties, but as a result of this realignment, it is going to be a responsibility of Senator Cyr that the essential services that they provide to the Island are maintained.”
The facility can house up to 30 individuals, and currently, on average, houses 15 to 20 people in its combined jail and house of corrections, said Ogden.
When is someone going to mention the unfairness of no provision for women in the house of corrections? Why should women have to serve their time off island in much rougher circumstances than the men who serve here?
Good point.