The Washington County sheriff is denying allegations released by a Passamaquoddy committee earlier this week that the jail is a place where abuse of tribal members occurs.

Sheriff Joseph Tibbetts said Thursday he was deeply troubled by the allegations reported in the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday.

“No one is actually pointing fingers and saying, ‘You’re racist,'” Tibbetts said in an interview at his Machias office. “But there is nothing – nothing – we would ever do to suggest that there is racism here.

“I am not racist, and I will damn well not put up with it, if I learn of any of my staff behaving in this way,” he said.

Tibbetts himself has some American Indian lineage, he revealed Thursday. A dream catcher – a spiritual symbol – hangs on the wall behind his desk. He keeps it there, he said, “to honor my Native American friends.”

Earlier this week the Passamaquoddy Criminal Justice Committee and a criminologist affiliated with a national peace and justice organization released a report accusing the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, Washington County Jail and the Maine Department of Corrections of discriminating against and criminally abusing Passamaquoddy inmates.

Among the specific charges are that one tribe member, Peter Gabriel, died of medical complications after being neglected by Washington County Jail officials while serving a sentence there in 2002.

Other charges leveled by Passamaquoddys who have been jailed include being subjected to extreme overcrowding, intrusive strip searches and sexual abuse of women. Two women cited in the report spoke of rape.

Tibbetts did not want to address specific issues that the commission highlighted, aside from calling the allegations “not true.”

“We [at the jail] are just as frustrated as the Passamaquoddy are,” he said. “We have got a huge problem of drug addiction, and it has touched almost every person in this county in some way.”

About three years ago, Tibbetts pointed out, all jail staff took part in cultural training with Passamaquoddy leaders after Eddie Bassett, then the tribe’s lieutenant governor, shared with the sheriff a concern about possible racist attitudes against jailed tribal members.

Jamie Bissonnette, a criminologist affiliated with American Friends Service Committee, said on Friday the fact the issue is being brought to light marks progress toward resolving the problem.

“Now that the jail is aware that the community is watching, and now that we are talking to the women after their release, I believe that they will be safer,” she said.

Bissonnette has been taking affidavits from both men and women at the Pleasant Point Reservation for the last 18 months detailing their experiences inside Washington County Jail and some state prisons.

Bissonnette will travel from Cambridge, Mass., to the reservation Sunday to visit with the community. She works as the New England director of the criminal justice program for the American Friends Service Committee.

“We are at a place now where the commission has a lot of support from the tribe. There is a lot of relief, too, that things are finally being talked about,” she said.

“We hope that in talking about them, we finally raise the veil and say, ‘This is really happening, and it’s harming our community,'” said Bissonnette.

The commission’s goal is not just to stop abuse from occurring, but to tackle some of the underlying issues – such as a countywide lack of treatment resources for drug addicts — as well, she said.

Bissonnette two years ago connected with several Pleasant Point individuals who saw the 2002 death of Gabriel within days of his transfer from the county jail to a hospital as the catalyst of recognizing a communitywide problem.

“That crisis was what brought people together to try to figure out what could be done, so this doesn’t happen any more,” Bissonnette said.

“This problem is not really about Sheriff Tibbetts or about his staff, although they do play roles in the story that is being revealed,” she said.

“In reality, the problem is an institutional one. It’s really about resolving the problem and changing institutions so they actually perform the functions that ideally we expect them to perform.”

Toward that end, Bissonnette on Monday evening will conduct her fourth workshop so far for tribal members on “knowing your rights.” Each of the workshops she did in July, September and December drew close to 20 people.

“We are adding tools to the survival toolbox,” she said.

She also will continue to gather affidavits from tribal members, more of whom have come forward to work with her confidentially since the BDN published the commission’s allegations.