Hassan A. Smith, an independent candidate, hopes the third time’s the charm in his bid for sheriff of Suffolk County, a job for which he says he has a special understanding. “We are suffering. The penal department is not doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” Smith told the Reporter. “We need to change the system so the department is set up for the people and by the people.”

The Intervale Street resident previously worked for ten years as a Suffolk County corrections officer; he has also been on the other side of the justice system: At age 15, Smith fatally shot a man in Roxbury and was sent to a juvenile detention center for two years before finishing high school in western Massachusetts and going on to college. Since then, he has worked as a mentor, speaking with other young people and their families.

“I’m showing the younger generation,” he said, “that everybody falls no matter what time it is, but what determines your fate is how you respond to the issues and I believe that I’ve responded really well.”

Smith told the Reporter that his career as a corrections officer came to end in 2004 when his run for sheriff against his boss, Andrea Cabral, complicated his job, motivating him to quit. (Editor's note: In fact, after this article was published, the Reporter learned that Smith was terminated from his job with the Sheriff's Department in November 2002 after a complaint alleging sexual harassment was made against him. He was not employed at the Sheriff's Department under Cabral's tenure, which began a few days after his termination was made official.)

The crux of Smith’s proposed changes for the sheriff’s department involves educating inmates while they are in prison through partnerships with local colleges and technical schools to “turn tax burdens into tax payers.” Smith said he had spoken with Mt. Ida College, a small private school in Newton that his daughter attended, about a potential partnership, but no others.

The Suffolk County sheriff primarily oversees the South Bay House of Correction and the Nashua Street Jail.

Smith outlined a number of plans he says would change the department, including instituting unit offices that will provide community outreach to young people and updating the computer system to better track individuals who have been released. He did not say how he would pay for these changes, but pledged to spend less than the department’s $103 million budget (see editor's note).

When asked how he would cut the budget while expanding programs, he refused to get into specifics, saying only that he would “cut any position that does not have to do with the safety of the public.”

“I don’t want to stir up any type of controversy that does not need to be stirred up right now, that does not need to be there yet,” he said.

In an interview last week, the 43 year-old Smith said his status as an independent candidate is based on his personal voting preference – he didn’t want to be bound to supporting only one party in the primaries – as well as his political stances, but he did not go into specifics.

“I want to work with anybody who gets elected and who has a say in what I do at the sheriff’s department,” he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article— which appeared in print— included an erroneous number for the annual budget of the Sheriff's Department. It is $103 million annually, not $122 million as initially reported. The Reporter regrets the error.

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In an effort to fend off a potential Republican governor in Charlie Baker, Democrats flew in First Lady Michelle Obama last Friday to stump for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley at a jam-packed event at the Strand Theatre. Lines stretched for blocks up Hancock Street ahead of the first lady’s arrival, and attendees included Dorchester state Reps. Evandro Carvalho and Dan Hunt, City Councillor Tito Jackson, and Congressman Joe Kennedy III.

At-Large City Councillor Ayanna Pressley was one of a handful of speakers who introduced Coakley, who then introduced Obama, but Pressley’s appearance was memorable as she delivered an impassioned, fiery speech urging those in the audience that “now is not the time for selective amnesia” if anyone is considering supporting Republican Charlie Baker.

For her part, Obama urged supporters to tell their friends and turn out on Election Day, adding that people win elections, not money, a response, perhaps, to reports that Coakley was lagging behind Baker in fundraising.

The event was a success, according to a Democratic party insider who told the Reporter that it had raised more than $100,000 for Coakley. And if that isn’t enough, Hillary Clinton will be in the Bay State to stump for Coakley sometime before November 4.