LYNN – Virginia Leigh, a Lynn resident and clinical social worker, kicked off her campaign for Essex County sheriff at the Galleries at Lynn Arts Saturday night to raise funds and discuss the county’s need for jail reform.
Merengue music played at the Exchange Street gallery while Leigh’s supporters mingled, munching on empanadas and sipping lemonade. The event’s MC, Michelle Richardson, announced the first speaker, Healthy Streets Outreach Program Director Mary Wheeler, while guests such as Salem Ward 7 Councilor Andrew Varela, and Swampscott Senior Tenants Association Member Joanne Rosen took their seats.
Varela said that he supports Leigh’s campaign because he thinks that she will provide a new way of looking at the incarcerated population. He said that since Leigh is a social worker, not a law enforcement official, she might be able to bring a new approach to the county’s jails.
“I’m so glad she’s actually running because we need a change to our sheriff’s department. We need a new look and new optics, a new perspective on how we take care of our underserved and our incarcerated,” Varela said. “The reason I’m backing Virginia is because the way we do things now is not working, it’s inefficient. This tradition of law enforcement becoming elected officials for our sheriff’s department is really, I believe, not appropriate. Having someone like Virginia willing to run for this position is great, because we need a different perspective when it comes to our incarcerated.”
Rosen said that the Swampscott Senior Tenants Association, which has never officially endorsed a political candidate, voted to endorse Leigh on Saturday. Rosen said that Leigh spoke at a cookout earlier in the month, and that her speech that day won her support.
“Today we voted to endorse Virginia. We’ve never done anything like that before, but we did it because it would be a miracle if she could be a sheriff here. There are serious, horrible issues in all the jails in Massachusetts, and she’s got some wonderful ideas because she’s coming from a social worker’s background,” Rosen said. “She [is] remarkable, and we all just had to get behind her.”
Between speakers, Richardson, whose voice carried loudly through the gallery without a microphone, spoke about the current jail system, and how Leigh’s approach to criminal justice would be rehabilitative, rather than punitive.
“When we think of the Sheriff’s department, we think of jails. Jails are supposed to punish the criminals, but they’re called correctional facilities, so they’re supposed to correct their behavior, right? They’re supposed to fix it. How are they supposed to fix it if they’re putting them in a more traumatic situation than the one that got them there?” Richardson said. “A different kind of Sheriff is exactly what we need. Somebody who is not the status quo, somebody that’s not the norm because the norm isn’t working.”
Polly Titcomb, a candidate for 8th Essex District State Representative, made an appearance at Leigh’s campaign kickoff. She said that she supports Leigh because her vision for the county overlaps with her own approach as a child welfare attorney.
“Virginia’s expertise focuses on the underlying causes of incarceration as the primary approach to reduce arrests and recidivism. As a child welfare attorney, my work often overlaps with the concerns Virginia speaks about, and I fully believe that her approach is the most effective and appropriate way to treat these individuals and offer them a healthier and happier path forward,” Titcomb said.
When supporter Ivette Martinez introduced Leigh, the crowd roared in applause. Leigh’s speech centered around the county’s need for criminal rehabilitation. She said that with her expertise as a clinical social worker, she can provide treatment for those incarcerated, and roll out programs to help incarcerated individuals re-enter society after their imprisonment.
“We have a choice in this year’s election. It’s a choice about public safety, about trust, about the central question of what we want our justice system to look like right here in Essex County […] our system for rehabilitation is failing the people it serves,” Leigh said. “Folks, it’s time for a change. It’s not enough to promise to lean in and be proactive on substance use and mental health, but then have to be dragged across the finish line by District Attorneys and lawsuits from the ACLU.”
In her speech, Leigh also spoke of her plan to lower recidivism rates and increase transparency in jails and prisons. She said that she was “appalled” by the fact that causes of death for prisoners in Essex County jails are often withheld from their family members and the public.
“This is what we have today folks, this is what we need to change, because it’s important that we understand that the status quo believes that the recidivism rates in the 40s is acceptable, even something to be proud of. As a clinician, I am appalled. Rehabilitation and retribution are two cultures that can not coexist together. We live under a system right here in Essex County, that withholds the causes of death of prisoners not just from the public, but from the very families of the people who have been lost, ” Leigh said. “We don’t know how people have died over the last six years in our jails, and neither do the families.”
