Virginia Leigh ’12MSW, a clinical social worker and alumna of Simmons School of Social Work, is running for Sheriff of Essex County.
What is your motivation for running for Essex County Sheriff?
I am convinced that the job of the Sheriff is actually a clinical and human services job. Setting aside your assumptions about sheriffs, based on Western movies and folklore, look at the work the sheriff does in 2022: the sheriff is the administrator of our jail, which is also our largest provider of mental health and substance use support in the community. Moreover, the sole purpose of the county jail is incarceration with the purpose of rehabilitation. At the end of the day, everyone who is serving time there is going home. The people who are awaiting trial need medical care and mental health care in order to follow-through with the justice process. They need to be able to present the best case they can — an offender’s wellbeing is essential to a victim having their day in court.
As the steward of all of the prisoners in the county, the sheriff’s most significant contribution to public safety is rehabilitation and reducing recidivism. When I think of all the elected positions, the sheriff is the most human services-centered job I can think of. Therefore, it should be social workers who are running for this job. It should be people in the recovery community.
What do you think a social worker can bring to this role?
The justice system is a relay race: law enforcement has the first leg, followed by the courts, and the sheriff. Each one of these embodies our hope to administer a just criminal justice system. However, they are each very different in nature, requiring different skillsets.
A social worker is a human services expert. We solve problems and think about problems in very different ways from people in other professions. We are not just thinking about what is right in front of us, we are thinking about six months and even ten years down the road. When we come up with solutions, we are thinking about the long-term gains and the long-term cost-benefit analysis of the choices that we make today and tomorrow. That long-term thinking is what we are missing in the Sheriff’s Department in Essex County right now.
A social worker’s perspective is so valuable, because we know that when we reduce recidivism, we save hundreds and thousands of dollars in taxpayer money when individuals do not return to the system.
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
I am a professional listener. I have developed the skills and capacities to build durable and transformative relationships across a vast spectrum of difference. That is one of the central tools that I can bring to the Sheriff’s Department. If you want to change the culture from one of retribution to one of rehabilitation, you have to bring with you the skills of listening. When people feel that they are being heard and that their needs are being addressed, they are more engaged in the processes of changing culture.
My whole career has been with the most vulnerable members of society, and I have loved every step of the way. It is time to widen the impact of my service to the community.
How has Simmons helped you in your career?
I am still in contact with my clinical mentors and lifelong friends from Simmons today. The foundation Simmons gave me set the stage for the ongoing clinical work that I expanded and deepened once I graduated.