Champions of Change
Sheriff Ashe is in his fortieth year of service as Sheriff of Hampden County, Massachusetts and plans to retire in 2016. As Sheriff, he is Chief Administrator of the Hampden County Correctional Center, which supervises approximately 1,450 offenders in five levels of security – medium, minimum, pre-release, day reporting, and after-incarceration support. Sheriff Ashe has established a model continuum of supported community re-entry for offenders, including some 300 community partnerships with public, non-profit and private organizations. He believes that it “takes a village” to successfully re-enter an offender as a productive, law-abiding citizen. As part of this re-entry effort, Sheriff Ashe has utilized community partnerships to help offenders find 523 jobs last year, and over 10,000 jobs in the past 20 years, having an impact on recidivism and public safety.