Next week, voters in Hampshire County will begin the process of selecting their first new sheriff in 32 years. The Democratic campaign has focused on resumes, legacies and a gentler kind of corrections.

The sheriff’s chief role is to oversee the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction, a rural facility a couple miles west of downtown Northampton. As of this week, the sheriff was responsible for 262 inmates and had a total of 163 employees.

In a debate hosted by WWLP, Kavern Lewis said this election is about change, the community and the youth. And even though he’s just 29 years old, he said he has “ten years corrections, law enforcement and security experience.

That resume, though, has been challenged by the Daily Hampshire Gazette, in an article that found Lewis misrepresented and exaggerated which law enforcement agencies he worked for and for how long.

Lewis insisted to us he never lied and accused the paper of misconstruing his statements. (The Gazette has fought back, releasing audio clips of the paper’s interview with Lewis.) At the debate, Lewis simply mentioned the article and said this:

“If anybody would like to see my resume, they’re welcome to contact me through my Facebook,” he said. (We asked Lewis to send us his resume, but as of Wednesday night, had not received it.)

In the Democratic primary, Lewis’ opponents include Melissa Perry. She’s a registered nurse and director of Behavioral Health Nursing at Holyoke Medical Center.

These qualifications would be significant in the sheriff’s role due to the fact that a large number of people incarcerated have mental illness and substance abuse,” Perry said.

She also has a degree in criminal justice, and a family connection. Her parents were officers at the jail, she said.

“And I am the grand-daughter of the late Sheriff John F. Boyle,” Perry said.

Boyle led the county’s jail for two decades until his death in 1984.

In the three decades since, Bob Garvey has been sheriff of Hampshire County. He’s not running for re-election, but his legacy is represented on the Democratic ballot by Patrick Cahillane, Garvey’s No. 2 at the jail.

Cahillane said he’s the only candidate who’ll be ready on Day One. And at the debate, used the word “continue” nearly a dozen times to describe how he’d carry on Garvey’s efforts, including:

• On working with an opioid task force: “I want to continue those activities and continue to do the treatment programs that we do inside the correctional facility.”
• On trying to reduce the number of prisoners: “As we continue down this road, we will continue to reduce the population.”
• And, in general: “To continue progressive leadership at the Hampshire County Sheriff’s office.”

And when the moderator several times brought up the much-lauded record of the retiring sheriff to the south, Hampden County’s Mike Ashe, Cahillane made sure to give his boss a plug.

“As a matter of fact, Sheriff Garvey was named Sheriff of the Year in 2002 for his innovativeness for programs,” Cahillane said.

And it’s true that Garvey and all three Democrats vying to replace him stress the need to rehabilitate inmates, instead of punishing them, and get help for those with substance abuse and mental health issues.

Melissa Perry said the next sheriff needs to build on those efforts by “talking to educators, talking to employers, talking to housing people. Anybody I could get to getting those folks who shouldn’t be in jail out into the community.”

Kavern Lewis also wants the sheriff to get more involved in assisting local police departments. And he hopes to tackle inequities in the imprisonment of minorities.

We’re getting locked up left and right for petty things as well, and I think we should really look into that and assess those as well,” Lewis said.

The winner of the September 8th primary in Hampshire County faces Republican David Isakson, a Hadley police officer, in November.