MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

For More Information Contact:

William Christofori
Assistant Superintendent
(413) 858-0114

SHERIFF ASHE CALLS CRITICISM OF UTILIZATION OF RETIREES

AS PART-TIME EMPLOYEES WHILE NOT FILLING THEIR POSITIONS
EXACTLY WRONG.
Sheriff Michael J. Ashe, Jr., has issued the following the statement:
The recent criticism of this Departments fiscally successful program of utilizing
retirees as part-time employees while not filling their former full-time positions is exactly
wrong.
Contrary to this recent mistaken criticism, in a May, 2015 national study by the
New York-based Vera Institute of Justice, entitled The Price of Jails
http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/price-of-jails.pdf, the Hampden
County Sheriffs Department was put in the spotlight as a national model for its annual
savings that would otherwise have been expended without a reduction of full-time
employees.
Perhaps the criticism comes from a misunderstanding about what our regular
practice is regarding the utilization of part-time retirees, perhaps we are being confused in
the criticism with agencies that might make a practice of filling retirees positions with new
hires and then hiring retirees back to previously non-existent positions. Our policy, on the
other hand, is to hire some retirees back part-time so that we can leave their full-time
positions unfilled, or to hire retirees for existent part-time positions for which we would
otherwise hire non-experienced people. Thus, our regular practice is not to create new
positions for retirees. Our policy is driven by money saving and utilization of experience,
not by creating new positions.
Over the last several years, weve had more retirees continuing on part-time because
the people who have helped develop, and been trained in, the operations that we have built
over my over four decades of leadership have reached the point of retirement. The new

Sheriff, whoever it is, will obviously be training people in his way of doing things and all of
those who have agreed to stay on to finish things with this Sheriff, because of their
experience in his systems, can gladly go on to the full retirement that they have postponed
to help out at the end.
A 36.2% reduction in inmate population made it possible for us not to fill a retirees
full time position, to disperse some of the retirees duties to other employees, and to utilize
the retiree part-time for other essential duties in his or her previous full-time position.
This percentage reduction of inmates has been nearly three times as great as the
percentage reduction of staff through attrition, thus assuring appropriate staffing levels,
including inmate/uniform security staff ratios that remain among the best in the field of
corrections.
We are currently utilizing 22 retirees on a part-time basis. Their services range from
van drivers, to community corrections building security, to retired superintendents who are
working in their areas of expertise, to teachers.
There is nothing illegal, unethical, sneaky, or financially wasteful about utilizing the
part-time employees instead of hiring full-time positions with benefits. Retirees are best
qualified for part-time employment since they are already trained and well-experienced.
Their years with us have already vetted them, if you will, so that we know what they can
do and how well they can do it. Certainly we are not the only organization, public or
private, who has asked retirees to stay on part-time as a wise business move.
Asking people to stay on a part-time basis after they retire is not some insider or
sweetheart deal reserved for those of high rank. Over the years, weve had retired parttimers of all ranks, uniform and non-uniform, including line correctional officers,
corporals, supervisory uniform officers, a maintenance supervisor, a laundry assistant,
teachers, a nurse, property room and payroll supervisors, a benefits specialist, and
administrators with specific skills such as training, volunteer and mentorship coordination,
public information, community corrections, and planning, to utilize their expertise and
experience.
People do not approach the Sheriff and say Listen I'll retire if you let me stay on
part-time. Rather, people retire, and if we see a need, we then ask them to consider staying
on with us part-time, and not riding off into the sunset with their experience and expertise.
Those who stay on to work part-time after they retire are limited, beginning with
the first calendar year after they retire, to 960 hours a year. This means they are limited to
an average of 18.5 hours per week.
Those who stay on to work part-time after they retire do not increase their pensions.

No one increases their state pension by accepting our offer to work part-time after they
retire.
I hear people use the term double-dipping, but the real double-dipping of our
utilization of retirees is the double-dipping into both cost savings and the vital
utilization of experience.
This practice is a win-win-win for the public, for the department, and for the
retiree who chooses to keep on serving. Far from being perceived in a negative light, this
practice deserves to be thought of as one of the wisest and most successful management
practices that weve instituted to take advantage of experience as the years have moved on.