LYNN — Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger knows firsthand just how multi-faceted the sheriff’s job is. For Coppinger, being the sheriff means combining law enforcement with social work, education, vocational training, and reentry for the incarcerated.
In his bid for re-election, Coppinger is facing a primary challenge from Virginia Leigh, a Lynn-based clinical social worker whose campaign is centered on the belief that law enforcement experience is not necessary to serve as sheriff. Coppinger acknowledged the importance of social work in the sheriff’s job but remained firm in his belief that law enforcement experience was necessary.
“You have to understand the law enforcement piece of it. That’s where I think I have an advantage because understanding number one, the law and number two, all those different parts of the law,” he said. “Yes, social work is a big piece. We embrace it. We have 30 social workers, then you have an educational component, vocational component, a reentry component … it’s the whole picture.”
Coppinger said he feels his tenure as sheriff has been a success, but he has yet to accomplish everything he sought to in the position, including securing a third facility for his Supporting Transitions and Reentry Program.
“I’m not done with what I want to do,” he said.
One of the key responsibilities of the sheriff is to oversee the county jail in Middleton, a responsibility Coppinger said he was uniquely prepared to take on because of the breadth of his law enforcement experience.
“My background in public safety is a huge step up on that. Understanding the root causes of crime, understanding the impact on victims, and understanding how to maintain a safe institution,” he said. “In addition to the safety, in addition to the social service work, we also concentrate on reentry, which starts day one.”
Leigh has repeatedly criticized Coppinger for the county’s recidivism rate, which currently stands at 42 percent. He said that rate drops significantly the longer people are incarcerated and engaging with the programs offered in the jail.
“Our data shows that the longer in jail, actively participating in the programs and the treatment, all of the things, that number drops to 31 [percent]. That is a very, very good number,” he said.
Coppinger also pushed back on criticism from Leigh over the high cost of phone calls for inmates inside the jail, noting that the sheriff has to pay to provide the program in the first place.
“$2.4 million a year to pay for that system. So it’s not just that you know, the 14 cents a minute for the phone calls. Who’s going to pay for the 2.4?” Coppinger asked.
Q: What, in your opinion, is the greatest challenge facing the criminal justice system today? How do you plan to tackle it?
“I go back to the root causes of crime. And this is what I started my career on. I mentioned the two biggies, substance use disorder and mental illness. If we could find a way to better screen these guys through the courts and send them to not so much another damned estate but some type of outside facility almost before 911 gets called, before the handcuffs come out, like the behavioral health unit [in Lynn] is supposed to be doing … we need more prevention on that issue.”
Q: If re-elected, how will you work to reduce recidivism rates among the incarcerated?
“We look at evidence-based curriculums. We look at national best practices … what’s working best wherever it is, in each area of expertise, all those things. I mentioned before, so we have those programs, and we’re seeking them out or putting them out there. Now is it perfect? No, nothing’s perfect, right? But when you look at recidivism, there’s such a broad definition, but it also is bearing on what are the courts doing? So it’s also what’s happening to communities. What’s the rate of crime in your communities? And what’s the rate of law enforcement in the communities? Are they out there making the arrest and rolling that and post-George Floyd era that can go both ways, and so and how does that impact on things and when they come in and out of the jail. So we look at all that we’re following national best practices, we’re using evidence-based curriculums, we’ve got I think, the best of the best in there. But we’re serving all the pieces of it. And my position is and that’s why I want to run for a second term is these reentry centers. As I said before, that’s the reason I decided to run for sheriff is to pick up what we’re doing at the jail and make sure they have those services locally, because if they don’t, everything they do in the jail’s just going to fall in the basket.”
Q: What can you bring to this position that you believe your opposing candidate will not?
“Look at my background … 32 years here in Lynn and seven as chief, a lot of interaction with the clients, we’ll call them, arrests, but also just the whole community policing model, input from people, understanding the problems, I keep going back to what the root causes of crime and right now two big ones are substance use disorder, and mental illness. The jails are the treatment facilities for both of those two issues.… I respect her passion for the social service, the social worker piece of it. I embrace it … we’re doing that…. So that’s a big piece that I think separates myself and Virginia. The other piece is you have to look at the job of the sheriff. And it’s not just one dimensional. It’s not just social service work. We have the criminal piece. It’s a jail and we have about 1,150 inmates.”
Q: What is the strongest quality you can bring to the job?
“I’m gonna give you my motto that I brought from Lynn up there, honesty, integrity, respect. I think my reputation as chief, if you’re going to be honest with yourself and everything else, be transparent. Integrity is huge. Treat people the way you want to be treated. And I tell that to the officers, treat the inmates the same way, we got to do that. And you have to have respect for everybody else. Especially in today’s society, with such a focus on law enforcement, you have to do that and you should just do that yourself anyway.”
“I’ll stand by my reputation any day of the week.”
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].