As the dust continues to settle around Monday night’s Berkshire County sheriff and district attorney primary debates, a fact check shows that Sheriff Tom Bowler made a false claim. And DA candidate Timothy Shugrue is offering an explanation for his own inaccurate statement.

The debates on Pittsfield Community Television are making waves with just weeks until the September 6^th Democratic primary. With no Republican candidates running, the vote will likely guarantee the Berkshires’ next sheriff and DA.

A flashpoint in the contentious campaign for sheriff has been the policy of holding Berkshire County women at a facility in Chicopee under Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi as opposed to the Berkshire House of Correction in Pittsfield. Chief Probation Officer of the Southern Berkshire District Court Alf Barbalunga is against the practice, and says he’d work to bring them back to the Berkshires if elected sheriff.

“This is pretty much a story of sheriff here that either is not equipped to do the job or does not want to do the job or somewhere in between," said Barbalunga. "I don't like hearing it. I don't like the usual rhetoric. Berkshire County is always underserved from Boston, we're kind of the redheaded stepchild, we can't handle it, we don't have the funding, we're not equipped. None of this is true. Every single study across the country says women are better when they're in closer proximity to their family, their loved ones, their resources. That's the bottom line....

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