Sheriff Can Use Armory as Jail for Two Weeks

After a weeklong standoff with the state, a sheriff with a crowded jail won permission Friday to keep a makeshift prison at a National Guard armory for at least two more weeks.

A Superior Court judge endorsed a temporary settlement between the state, which owns the armory, and Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe, who seized part of the building Feb. 16.

Ashe, whose action sparked a war of words with the state and drew support from many citizens, said he had just decided to “go out and do what I have to do.”

The sheriff was under a federal court order forbidding him to hold more than 500 prisoners in the 102-year-old Hampden County Jail, which is designed to house 279 inmates.

Nineteen inmates were held Friday at the temporary lockup at the armory, in a large room with a concrete floor and a volleyball net stretched between the walls.

“This is a victory for the people,” Ashe said after the hearing in which lawyers for the county and state agreed to let him keep using the armory until March 12. On that day, both sides are to report back with a permanent solution, or a hearing will be held on the sheriff’s request for an injunction allowing him to keep using the armory.

Under the settlement approved by Judge George Keady, Ashe agreed to allow the Guard to keep operating out of the building.

“I think what we wanted to do is keep it on the front burner but turn down the heat,” said Lawrence Fletcher-Hill, assistant state attorney general.