LUDLOW, Mass. (WWLP) – The National Institute of Corrections hosted its annual Large Jail Network conference at the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday.

Around 75 sheriffs and jail administrators from across the country had the chance to tour several of the facilities and programs at the Hampden County correctional facility to get an overview of the work done there.

“It’s about touring seeing our best practices looking at our medical protocols our medication assessment treatment and our security program and looking at our education and vocational opportunities for the Justice of all men and women,” said Sheriff Nick Cocchi.

Hampden County has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country. According to the National Institute of Corrections, facilities under the leadership of Sheriff Nick Cocchi are considered model correctional institutions.

“Re-entry starts day one. When we get somebody in front, they court there, sentence is there, punishment… they come here. Then to work towards returning to society back to the community to be more productive citizens, to be the mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister that they need to be but most important, we need them to be as a community,” said Cocchi.

The goal of Wednesday’s event was to show and share some of the correctional facilities best practices that help the justice-involved people they encounter go back to the community better equipped for success and less likely to return as an inmate.

“We are going to talk about our mental health program our substance abuse education and treatment programs. We’re going to talk about anger management, that they can go back to the community and cope with some of the things that have brought them down a path of criminal behavior and brought them to jail in the first place,” said Cocchi.