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| Bristol Co., Mass. Sheriff Refuses to Grant Marriage Requests By Inmates |
| By Boston Globe |
| Published: 07/28/2003 |
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After a six-month engagement, Garry Jacquet planned to marry his fiancee, Guilaine Lorzeille, this summer. And he still wants to, even though he is locked in jail fighting a deportation order that would return him to his native Haiti. But his jailer, Thomas M. Hodgson, the tough-talking Bristol County sheriff who brought back chain gangs, says he's ''not in the business of managing a wedding chapel.'' Hodgson has twice refused recent requests by prisoners to marry in jailhouse ceremonies and he held a news conference yesterday to explain. ''We are focused on corrections and security, not on being a wedding chapel or offering civil marriages,'' Hodgson told reporters. Jacquet lost his bid for asylum in December and was ordered to leave the country. He was arrested three weeks ago by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A Haitian woman awaiting deportation on immigration violations also asked recently for permission to be married at the jail, the sheriff said. After becoming a US citizen last year, Lorzeille, 24, also of Haiti, said she looked forward to marrying Jacquet and leading a ''normal, happy life.'' Before Jacquet was jailed, the couple said, they had planned a small wedding in a Medford church. ''I don't think it is fair,'' Lorzeille said yesterday by phone. ''I am a US citizen; this is my country. If I want to get married, I should be able to get married.'' Lorzeille, who said she was shocked when Jacquet, a carpenter, was locked up, asked the sheriff to consider her fiance's plight. ''What if he was in Garry's position? How would he feel? He would understand exactly what is going on. He isn't treating him as a human being.'' Hodgson said ''it doesn't make good, common, correctional sense'' for weddings to take place in his facility, where prisoners are in custody on average for 10 months. Even though state and federal law permit inmates to be married while incarcerated, jail officials can refuse a marriage request if there is a compelling reason to halt the ceremony. In a facility that charges inmates for doctor's appointments and haircuts, Hodgson said allowing marriages would be a misuse of public money to pay for required background checks of the outside party and the person performing the ceremony, as well as staffing changes to accommodate a wedding. Security concerns, he said, are also a factor because a wedding would require outsiders to be allowed inside the jail's secure perimeter. The jail also does not allow contact between inmates and visitors, which would extend to a bride and groom. Jacquet's lawyer, Jeffrey Rubin, said the intent of the marriage is not to evade deportation, but he said that it could help the couple establish roots and could be a factor as he fights deportation. Even if the sheriff were to allow the wedding, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement would need to determine whether the marriage was valid because Jacquet is imprisoned for immigration violations, said Paula Grenier, a Boston spokeswoman for the bureau. As a bureau detainee, Jacquet can request permission to marry from the bureau, which could move him to a facility that permits inmate marriages, Grenier said. It might, however, be difficult to find another county facility in Massachusetts willing to perform the wedding. When a Plymouth County inmate was denied permission to marry earlier this year, he sued Sheriff Joseph McDonough, charging it was a violation of his civil rights. A judge ruled in the inmate's favor and allowed the wedding, despite the jailer's protests. It is unclear if the wedding took place. State prison inmates are allowed to be married if administrators determine that there is not a major security concern, said Justin Latini, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Correction. The average sentence in state prison is six years, Latini said, vs. county jail sentences, which can be as short as a few days. |
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