BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2022) — Alf Barbalunga, challenging two-time incumbent Tom Bowler for sheriff, pledged to run a clean campaign on the issues, not on personal attacks. Team Alf, as they refer to themselves, say that’s been the case thus far in what shapes up to be this year’s premier local race.

Sheriff Tom Bowler thinks differently.

“He’s full of shit,” Bowler said in a two-hour sit-down with THE PLANET Tuesday.

The sheriff says Barbalunga keeps making “dangerous, misleading, and irresponsible statements” that indicate he hasn’t a clue on jail operations.

During the campaign and on his website (www.barbalunga.com), the challenger has stated or implied:

• Bowler “and/or members of his Executive Committee” would punish jail employees “who may have wished to donate to our campaign.” That’s why Alf says he won’t accept campaign donations from jail staffers.
• Bowler’s people have stolen 15% of his lawn signs. “That is a leadership statement [about Bowler]. Nothing more to say.”
• He has uncovered “current and past professional deficiencies exhibited by Bowler and his leadership team.” He hasn’t specified them.
• He would halt inmate escapes and deaths. Have there been any under Bowler? Alf doesn’t say. The implication, nonetheless, is there.
• While the inmate population at the jail has dropped to 162 [ED. NOTE: actually, it’s somewhere between 155 and 158, according to the sheriff], “staffing costs have soared.” Barbalunga say Bowler budget rose by 32% since FY13 and that “the sheriff has added at least $4.5 million in wages and salaries since he took office.” All this “as inmate count has plummeted.”

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Bowler refuted each of the charges in our wide ranging talk, held informally over an iced tea (he) and a steaming cuppa joe (we).

Bowler said Barbalunga “doesn’t have a clue about the sheriff’s responsibilities in the countywide jurisdiction.” Bowler says his opponent continually mischaracterizes the jail budget through lack of understanding or deliberate misstatements, is way off base in his criticism of the central facility in Chicopee for female prisoners, and “he doesn’t even realize the state owns the jail, not the city or the county.” Bowler said someone should tell Alf that county government was abolished years ago by the state legislature in 1998, formally taking effect as of July 1, 2000. Bowler said the jail can’t be returned to “local ownership,” since there is no local entity that could take title. The sheriff expressed stunned exasperation that any serious candidate for sheriff could be so uninformed.

Bowler said Barbalunga has only been to the jail one time since it opened, and that was part of a group tour. He said Alf doesn’t know the layout, the programs, the security needs, and has shown both ignorance and naivte in making promises he can’t keep.

“He’s listening to four or five disgruntled employees,” Bowler says, “And he’s making policy on that [skewed] perspective.” As an example, Bowler mentioned Barbalunga’s pledge “on Day One” to return to the Berkshires women now being held in Chicopee back to Lanesborough.

Bowler says that would be disastrous for the women, for the jail, and for public safety. The Chicopee center opened in 2014 at the request of the sheriffs of Berkshire, Hamden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties for the express purpose of providing centralized services far greater than any of the four individual jails would provide.

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Bowler says in making his promise to return women inmates, Barbalunga has not specified how he intends to do that. How would he set up parallel but separate educational programs and growth opportunities? How would he offer the gender-specific treatment women now receive in Chicopee? How would he staff the influx? How would he pay for it?

The Western Mass. Regional Women’s Correction Center (WCC) earlier this year received a perfect 100% audit from the state comptroller’s office, the top score in the nation for such facilities.

One final note from THE PLANET: Both men have agreed to a debate that we would host and sponsor. We don’t have a time, date, or place yet, but it will take place during the first week of August. We shall release the specifics as soon as we have them. It will, without question, be the definitive head-to-head encounter between these two Alpha Males, with room for only one Top Dog.

Those who have seen us in the many TV and radio debates we have hosted know that we will have two hot seats turned up on “High//Danger!”

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“Every generation is invaded by barbarians. We call them children” — Hannah Arendt.

LOVE TO ALL.

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