NO!

Remember a couple weeks ago when Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett was jailed for not providing adequate nutrition to inmates in his care? Remember that he also pocketed - legally - $212,000 over three years on top of his $65,000 a year salary. He was able to do that by starving his inmates.

There was public outrage. We were on the front page of the NYT, CNN and who knows how many other papers around the world, looking like the cave-dwelling-knuckle-dragging-barbarians that we always look like when we make national news.

So folks got busy looking at ways to fix the problem. Here is what the Sheriff's Association came up with.

Give us the money we were stealing by starving the inmates in the form of a pay raise and we won't starve the inmates anymore. No shit!

They wanted to make what a District Judge makes which is around $110,000 a year I believe. That made me laugh so hard. The two bit yuk-yuk boss hawgs in this state are not required to have a degree of any kind. Only a GED is required. Yet, they want the same salary as the judge who has spent many years in college to earn that salary.

HELL NO! We are in a recession....nay damn near a depression and there is no money for pay raises. Sheriff's know what the job pays before they take it. Are they saying that they only took the job because of the incentive to starve prisoners and pocket the money that should have been used for food?

I swear the nuts are running the asylum in this state.

Bi-partisan lawmakers to tackle law that allows sheriffs to starve inmates

Apparently legislators are reading this blog or the comments on the news forums around the state because this morning the Huntsville Times is reporting that , four North Alabama legislators want to end the practice of allowing Sheriff's to pocket left over food money. They are Arthur Orr, Randy Hinshaw (who pointed out that not everyone in jail is guilty and many haven't even been tried), Ronald Grantland (who actually pointed out that prison IS the punishment...not starvation) and Mike Ball a former State Trooper. Two Republicans and two Democrats....Hmmm do I smell bi-partisan support?

The HTIMES is also reporting that the Sheriff is crying us a river. Says he is a scapegoat for changing the law. Money quote...

It's a sad day when a sheriff can be discredited by a few inmates who have reason to lie about their food," Bartlett said. "If I have left over money, what should I do? Go out and buy the inmates steaks?"

Waaa Waaa Waaa everybody's being mean to me. What a wuss.

Being a bad steward of the public trust and making your fellow Alabamians look like knuckle dragging cave dwellers is why people are angry at you Sheriff Bartlett. Starvation which leads to health problems which costs the citizens of the county money and it is blatantly in violation of the Constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

While no one thinks inmates should get a seven course meal three times a day what people don’t seem to realize that bad nutrition leads to poor health which leads to large health care expense incurred from those in prison/jail. Guess who pays for those health care expenses and expensive lawsuits like this one while the sheriff pockets the $212,000 for his own personal use? We, the taxpayers of Alabama, pay for it. In this case the citizens of Morgan Co. will pay for it since the county commission now has to pay the legal fees of the SCHR lawyers. Wonder how far the $212,000 Sheriff Bartlett pocketed would go towards resigning that debt?

Another thing..

When a judge sends someone to prison that, in and of itself IS the punishment. Removing them from society. All of the other things that happen like starvation, same sex sexual assault, deplorable conditions, the catching of a multitude of diseases those are all extra-judicially imposed and not intended to be part of the punishment.

Those who think those things are ok because someone is in prison are no better than the people who inhabit the jails to begin with and much much worse than some of them. Remember that some of them are awaiting trial and have been convicted of nothing.

Federal judge questions Alabama jail feeding system

From the Huntsville Times

DECATUR, Ala. -- A federal judge is questioning Alabama's practice of letting county sheriffs make a profit from feeding prisoners in their jails.

U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon has scheduled a hearing in Decatur for Wednesday in a lawsuit filed over conditions in the Morgan County Jail.

Clemon ordered the sheriff to bring documents showing how much money he is making off the system.

A state law dating to the Depression pays sheriffs $1.75 a day to feed prisoners and lets them keep any profit. Some sheriff actually make money off the practice despite the low payments.

Critics charge that the system can lead to abuse, but sheriffs defend it.

The judge wants to know how much Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett is personally profiting from the payments.

And it's about time. This is one of those things (like many many other things in the Alabama code) that makes absolutely no sense to me. The incentive for corruption is HUGE. Can you eat healthy on $1.75 a day? Bad nutrition just leads to serious health problems which the state taxpayers also have to pick up the tab for. It will be most interesting to see how much money Sheriff Bartlett is pocketing from this inhumane venture.