The Wayward Sheriffs of Witch County: True Misadventures of Operating America's Oldest Jail and Courthouse

With no correctional or law enforcement experience, Robert E. Cahill ran for and won the office of High Sheriff of Essex County, Massachusetts, becoming the first Democrat elected to the post in it’s over 300 year history. What Cahill discovered as he took office in 1974 was a county correctional system in such a state of neglect and abuse that it was in violation of almost every health and human-rights regulation on the books.

This is a first-person true story of thieves, murders, fugitives, rioters, reckless youths, the criminally insane and the wayward sheriffs that were charged with taking care of them. It is about the miraculous progress of these destitute inmates and bumbling sheriffs in the bastilles of "Witch County" as they struggled from the dark ages into the Twentieth Century. In the process, the High Sheriff was also transformed from a staunch conservative to a devious liberal, battling many foes, including the public and press, to win equal rights for his inmates- a battle that almost killed him. This book is an eye-opener for Americans, exposing how we neglect and mistreat our downtrodden and dysfunctional fellow citizens.