Ever since President-elect Donald Trump first floated the idea of building a wall along the Mexican border, there has been a lot of confusion. Who would pay for it? How would the damn thing get built? Would it even work? One Massachusetts sheriff has an idea for the labor portion, anyway: inmates.

At his swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson announced his proposal to lend a helping hand to building Trump's hypothetical wall with the debut of something he's calling Project N.I.C.E.: National Inmates' Community Endeavors. The program is meant to be a nationwide extension of inmate work programs that he has overseen for his nearly 20 years as sheriff. Along with building the wall, inmates from around the country would be used in relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters, as a sort of guarded-National Guard.

"I can think of no other project that would have such a positive impact on our inmates and our country than building this wall," Hodgson said. "Aside from learning and perfecting construction skills, the symbolism of these inmates building a wall to prevent crime in communities around the country, and to preserve jobs and work opportunities for them and other Americans upon release, can be very powerful."

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The symbolism is powerful indeed, but not necessarily in the manner he intends. "The idea of sending prisoners, who are in general disadvantaged people in our society, people of color, and many times immigrants, to build a wall to keep out other people of color is perverse," said the Massachusetts ACLU's Laura Rótolo.

Hodgson has shown a commitment to controversial programs like these in the past. He cut out all recreation such as basketball and weight-lifting in his facilities, introduced co-pays for inmates receiving medical services, and began charging prisoners $5-a-day in rent. In 2010, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ordered him to return around $750,000 he had collected from inmates to cover the expense of housing them. Around the turn of the millennium, he was broadly rebuked by all sides for introducing chain-gangs to Massachusetts for the first time, a program he said was voluntary and that many inmates actually enjoyed.

To Rótolo's knowledge, sending prisoners across state lines for such a project is unprecedented. The ACLU is currently examining the legal issues around such a plan, but the concrete details haven't yet been released. Indeed, like with the wall itself, it's not clear who would pay for the transportation and security involved in sending inmate work crews around the country. Hodgson has said he intends to explain more at an upcoming meeting of the National Sheriffs' Association.

When asked for a reaction, the office of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker did not offer support for the proposal.

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"The Baker-Polito Administration is thankful for the valuable community service inmates in Bristol County have provided through work programs and would prefer they continue to offer those services closer to home," said the office in a statement to Esquire. "The administration has not been briefed on the Sheriff's proposal."

The National Sheriffs' Association, however, is open to the idea, Director Jonathan Thompson told WBUR.

"Most sheriffs are doing various projects in their own communities. But it made sense to me after a hurricane like they had in South Carolina, or any kind of natural disaster, that we ought to be dispatching inmates around the country to be able to respond," Hodgson explained over the phone from Washington, D.C., Thursday evening. "We need to create a workforce of inmates in different locations to help those communities get back on their feet and rebuild, and to give inmates something they can put on their resume, earn good time off their sentence, at no cost to taxpayers for the labor."

That last part may come as a surprise, but using inmates for labor is actually legal. It's specifically mentioned in the 13th Amendment, which reads: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted…" Some states, like Louisiana, have particularly draconian views on penal labor, where prisoners may be forced to work under threat of punishment, or are paid pennies per hour.

"We support any programs designed to help people build skills, educate them, help them get a degree, and reenter their communities," Rótolo said. "This is not one of those rehabilitative programs. This is about politics. If Sheriff Hodgson wants to focus on educating and rehabilitating people under his care, there are better options."

Hodgson insists that it's a program that would be beneficial to inmates, rather than exploitative. After the earthquake in Haiti, he organized inmates to work on gathering supplies to ship to victims. He has had prisoners paint seniors centers and rehab a historic lighthouse in New Bedford. As he tells it, they're always thankful for the opportunity to be involved.

In one instance, he enlisted inmates to build a handicap-accessible treehouse at a residential facility for children with disabilities. "The day we cut the ribbon, we only had one inmate still in custody, we brought him to the site to celebrate the opening. The inmate got up and spoke and said, 'You know, I have to tell you that God sent me back to prison so I could build this project.'"

He continued.

"That's what all the sheriffs want to do, in whatever way, to help add more to their life's toolbox, to feel they contributed rather than continuing a life of crime," Hodgson said. "Not to mention they could get a skill. But to be able to build this wall, to go there and know they're doing something good for America, ironically finishing off their sentence, but then to be building a wall to prevent others from coming into our communities to victimize innocent people and reduce crime. In addition to which, they would also, by building this wall, be preserving the opportunity to get jobs they otherwise couldn't get if immigrants are coming and taking them when they get released from prison. What better rehabilitative thing can we offer to inmates—to say, 'Hey, you've got a job?'"

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There certainly are benefits to rehabilitating prisoners, but it's hard not to view this latest pronouncement from Hodgson—a Trump supporter and longtime critic of the immigration policies of President Obama and and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick—as something of a political gambit. Hodgson, after all, housed former New England Patriots star and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez in his facility and was quite vocal about it.

In the coming months, Hodgson, a fierce critic of sanctuary cities, will be working with ICE to further train his staff to work on identifying undocumented immigrants and to check the immigration status of the inmates who come into his care.

Inmates at Bristol County Jail in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Getty Images

When asked if he understood why many found the idea of using inmate labor unsavory, he dismissed it.

"If it's good enough for the private sector, it's good enough for people who need to learn how to work together," he said. "People who say it's like slavery? Then shut down every factory in Massachusetts. Back in the day they were used for child labor, and every time someone goes in there now, it reminds them of child labor. We're not breaking laws, we're making a difference."

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