New Berkshire County House of Correction opens its doors

12:00AM / Wednesday, January 10, 2001Print Story | Email Story

The old Berkshire County jail was built at a time when anesthetic and repeating rifles were comparatively new inventions. The new jail comes equipped with a retinal scanner. According to Lt. Gov. Jane Swift, it is now the most high-tech facility in the Commonwealth. Last Friday, Swift cut the ribbon on the new Berkshire County House of Correction, signaling the start of a three-day public open house and a round of guided tours. The new jail comes as part of the Cellucci administrationâ€™s stand against crime. â€œWe're committed to putting violent criminals behind bars, where they belong,â€ Swift said. The state is also building a new Womenâ€™s Jail in Chicopee and a lock-up in Northampton. â€œWe have a right to know that we are safe in our homes, at our offices, in our streets,â€ said Sheriff Carmen C. Massimiano Jr., â€œor if not, that there is a constant watch.â€ He welcomed sheriffs from surrounding counties reaching as far as Boston; members of the Massachusetts Supreme Court; Michael J. Lambert, acting deputy commissioner, Construction Services Division of Capital Asset Management; and state and local officials to the ribbon cutting, to thank them for years of support for the project. Pittsfield Mayor Gerald S. Doyle Jr. agreed that a correction facility is an important institution, because it gives the inmates a chance to be a part of their community, state, and nation. There is no greater tribute to a person, he said, than this jail is to Sheriff Massimiano, and it is well deserved. The new jail represents $34 million and 23 years â€” and a lot of determined representation in the state Legislature. â€œDonâ€™t assume that because this was necessary and right it was going to be taken care of,â€ Massimiano said, recognizing the representatives at the front who won him the funding to make it happen. State Reps. Daniel E. Bosley (D-North Adams), Shaun P. Kelly (R-Dalton), Peter J. Larkin (D-Pittsfield) and Christopher J. Hodgkins (D-Lee) offered Massimiano their congratulations and remembered past victories for the jail. Ten years ago, when he first saw the bill discussing new houses of correction, it did not even mention Berkshire County, Kelly said. And in all those 10 years â€” in all the many gripes and complaints he has received â€” no one has ever called to complain about the Berkshire County jail system. This is a doubly strong testament to the sheriff, considering that the old jail was built just after the Civil War, and has been running at double capacity. Massimiano, citing his famed inability to hang a picture correctly, adds thanks to Tom Mazzeo, director of the new facilities. The Rev. Michael Shershanovich, Catholic chaplain, Berkshire County Sheriffâ€™s Office, opened the ceremony, and the Rev. Peter Gregory, pastor of St. Charles Church, chaplain of the Pittsfield Fire Department closed it, with their blessing. The new facility covers 25 acres. Inmates live in 288 cells, grouped in eight pods of 36, with handicapped facilities. These include one womanâ€™s pod, Captain Steve Como said, as he led a tour through. Berkshire County has sent its female prisoners to Springfield for many years, because the old jail had no place for them. This made a difficult situation even more painful; it was difficult for their families and children to visit them. The jail is designed, as Como says most jails are now, to run on a system of direct supervision. One officer has authority over one pod. The officers know whatâ€™s going on, Como said; they can walk around, observe, and break up tense situations before fights have a chance to start. You can tell immediately if an officer is doing the job, Como said: the pod is quiet and clean. Three shifts of officers share one pod. It is important that they communicate well, and reinforce each otherâ€™s decisions, he said. Como walks his tour through the centerâ€™s one disciplinary pod, a bare, cement gray area without furniture. Prisoners who refuse to follow rules and disrupt other areas may be transferred to this area. â€œWe hope we never to have to use it,â€ Como said. There are smaller exercise areas outside of this pod. Asked about the doors at the far end of the room, with square windows at shoulder height and rectangular openings at hip height, he said they were showers. The guard has to be able to see the prisoner at all times. Before leaving the shower, a prisoner in this pod backs up to the door so he can be handcuffed though the opening. In this area, the prisoners are shackled. The other pods have softer paint on the walls and foam furniture, made by inmates, in the central areas, where there will be TVs. Their cells contain what the detention cells do: bed, desk, toilet. Como said although the floors had been waxed for the open house, the jail will always be that clean. The inmates will clean their cells and common space every morning, and until the officer in charge is satisfied, the TV stays off. Some channels are not allowed in any case. These pods also have a few closed-off cells where officers can isolate disruptive inmates. In general, Como describes the jail running on a kind of honor system. The officers expect the prisoners to behave well, to be quiet and neat, to walk in orderly lines if they leave their pods. The hallways are tiled in two different colors; inmates walk in the right, with an officer on the left watching them. Como estimated 90 percent of the inmates are cooperative and follow rules willingly; the staff spends most of its time dealing with the other 10 percent. At the old jail, they had such limited space they had to rotate groups of inmates, shutting one group in their cells to let another out. With the space they have in the new jail, they can allow most prisoners out of their cells for 10 or 12 hours a day. Except for meals and programs, they still stay in their common areas. Massimiano focuses on treatment and education programs. â€œWhy are we shocked when someone cannot speak English and turns to crime for a living?â€ He asked. The new facility has three classrooms, computers, and a library. They offer art classes, a Horizons job training program and a GED program. Como explained that most inmates in the Berkshire County jail had no high school diploma, and many took advantage of the GED. â€œIt is the programs that make jails successful, keep them humane, and allow the inmates to succeed if it is in them to do so,â€ Massimiano said. Just down the hall, Como points out the chapel, a medium-sized room with a ring of chairs and a dove flying on a red mural, and the chaplainâ€™s office next door. The jail has nondenominational faith services, prayer groups, and Bible studies. Still farther down, there is space for substance abuse counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and medical and dental facilities. Como leads the way to the booking room. Here again, there are chairs and entertainment for those who wait quietly, and places to confine any who do not. Behind the desk, admitted inmates leave their property in a kind of giant cloakroom and receive sneakers, jump suits and underwear. The jail gives them what they have: â€œWe control all the property,â€ Como said. A woman who has already been â€œbookedâ€ demonstrates the iris scanner: she looks through an opening the size of a nickel, and a close-up of her eye loads onto the computer screen. Her â€œfileâ€ automatically pops up. The jailâ€™s high-tech equipment also stretches to computers controlling lights, water, cameras and systems, and fire equipment designed to protect these computer areas, since the officers controlling the computers cannot leave their posts. These officers are used to punch cards and bookings on paper; they have had to train in the new computer operations. In Central Control, officers watch images from 105 cameras, black-and-white cameras outside the jail and color inside. These officers control access to different areas within the facility. Doorways between the dining hall and kitchen, the medical area, the chapel and classrooms, the warehouses and booking areas where the tours walked freely, will be shut and sealed when the jail opens. The warehouses are attached to the correction facility, since trucks driving in and out pose a security risk. The jail serves about 1,700 meals a day, in two dining rooms that hold 72 people each. Inmates work in the kitchen, baking bread, boiling pasta in steam kettles higher than their waists. They have 35-40 minutes to eat each meal.

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McCann Recognizes Superintendent Award Recipient

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:32PM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Landon LeClair and Superintendent James Brosnan with Landon's parents Eric and Susan LeClair, who is a teacher at McCann.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Superintendent's Award has been presented to Landon LeClair, a senior in McCann Technical School's advanced manufacturing course.

The presentation was made last Thursday by Superintendent Jame Brosnan after Principal Justin Kratz read from teachers' letters extolling LeClair's school work, leadership and dedication.

"He's become somewhat legendary at the Fall State Leadership Conference for trying to be a leader at his dinner table, getting an entire plate of cookies for him and all his friends," read Kratz to chuckles from the School Committee. "Landon was always a dedicated student and a quiet leader who cared about mastering the content."

LeClair was also recognized for his participation on the school's golf team and for mentoring younger teammates.

"Landon jumped in tutoring the student so thoroughly that the freshman was able to demonstrate proficiency on an assessment despite the missed class time for golf matches," read Kratz.

The principal noted that the school also received feedback from LeClair's co-op employer, who rated him with all fours.

"This week, we sent Landon to our other machine shop to help load and run parts in the CNC mill," his employer wrote to the school. LeClair was so competent the supervisor advised the central shop might not get him back.

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