SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—The sheriff here, whom the White House hailed as a “Champion of Change” for his re-entry innovations, is about to retire, leaving many to fret about the future of those successful criminal-justice reforms.
Michael Ashe Jr. was elected Hampden County Sheriff in 1974, and has run unopposed ever since. His political prominence is especially on display at his annual clambake, an obligatory campaign stop for local and state candidates seeking his endorsement. His efforts to reform corrections by focusing on community reintegration have reverberated in his state and beyond.
[For more of this story, written by Maura Ewing, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/pol...-leaves-town/474378/]
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