When I asked my brother, who served two multiyear sentences at the Hampshire County House of Corrections for crimes related to his drug addiction and mental illness, about his view on the sheriff’s race, I got a detailed insider account that doesn’t come up in candidate debates or social media.

A veteran and carpenter, my brother spent 2017 — the first year of Sheriff Patrick Cahillane’s term and the final year of my brother’s sentence — in the jail’s woodworking workshop. Five days and 40 hours each week he constructed with wood. Paid 15 cents per hour, he made some pieces for the public good that make him proud — picnic tables at the courthouse, signposts at local conservation areas, a bookcase for the district attorney’s office.

But as word spread that he was a gifted woodworker, my brother was asked to build things for jail employees, including high level administrative staff whom he could name. A kitchen table, a set of baker’s cabinets, custom countertops. He had photos of the pieces he’d made and texted them to me. There they were in full color with jail block walls in the background.

Paid by taxpayers, and with wood provided in part through donations of a local lumber company, my brother displayed things he’d built, while in jail, for the sole benefit of his jailers. Were there other inmates in the shop put in this position? “I was the only inmate in the woodworking program that year.” Really? You could have mentored other inmates, as skilled as you are. “True, but I was never given that opportunity.”

My brother paid his dues to society, but, it seems, he paid them to staff at the Hampshire County jail as well. What does my brother have to say about the sheriff’s race? “The jail needs new leadership, someone who is serious about education and technical job training.”

With my brother’s experience at heart, and with his blessing to submit this letter, I am voting for a candidate with commitment to integrity and transparency, and with the most experience with educational and vocational programming for our incarcerated community members: Yvonne Gittelson for Hampshire County sheriff.

EASTHAMPTON — The city is about to embark on the beginning stages of an estimated $13.9 million infrastructure project to redesign one of its main...

Another 37 cases of monkeypox were confirmed in Massachusetts over the last week and the supply of the vaccine that protects against the virus...

On the morning of Sept. 1, 1897, the residents of Boston woke up to the dawn of a new era in public transportation.Shortly after 6 a.m., a trolley...

AMHERST — Even though thousands of University of Massachusetts students make their homes in neighborhoods in Amherst and beyond, outgoing...