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.

Bartlett Blames Inmates for Skimpy Food Portions

AP

DECATUR, Ala. -- Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett will speak with reporters this afternoon about his recent jailing over allegations that he scrimped on food for inmates and pocketed the money left over.

Federal Judge U.W. Clemon jailed Bartlett Wednesday on a contempt of court charge after inmates testified about skimpy meals and Bartlett admitted to legally keeping more than $200,000 over the past two years in leftover food money. A 1939 state law allows sheriffs to keep money left over from feeding prisoners.

Bartlett was released from federal custody Thursday after promising to provide healthier meals and use all money collected for jail food for that purpose only.

However, Bartlett issued a news release today, and scheduled interviews with local reporters, to refute testimony in federal court Wednesday by prisoners who claimed they were being starved.

He said he had received only 15 complaints about food after serving 328,000 meals in 2008.

"I know that the portion size issue came up, and it is possible for inmates serving in the kitchen to short another inmate they had a grudge with or just didn't like. I have been told by staff members and inmates that this may have occurred on some occasions," Bartlett said in the release. "Staff will now directly observe portion sizes of all meals."

What a man's man Sheriff Bartlett is....blaming the inmates because no one will believe them anyway, instead of taking personal responsibility for his actions, which have humiliated Alabama in the national media once again and have cost the taxpayers of Morgan Co. untold amounts of money due to the lawsuit. That's a great way to teach those under your supervision to accept responsibility for the things they have done wrong...blame them when you do wrong. What a total and complete pansy. I am sick of people like this making all of Alabama look like cavemen in the eyes of the rest of the world.

The sheriff and the entire county commission should be run out of town on a rail. The greed of the sheriff has now cost the taxpayers of Morgan Co. a lot of money. I wonder how far that $212,000 sheriff Bartlett pocketed would go towards paying the legal fees now owed by the commission not to mention the health care costs of the inmates suffering from poor nutrition?

Judge Locks Up Sheriff in Own Jail for Starving Prisoners

Yesterday I posted about Federal Judge UW Clemon and his investigation of the Morgan Co. jail feeding practices.

Today the Montgomery Advertiser is reporting that Judge Clemon has arrested Sheriff Greg Bartlett over jail food.

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) -- A federal judge ordered an Alabama sheriff locked up in his own jail Wednesday after holding him in contempt for failing to adequately feed inmates while profiting from the skimpy meals.

U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon had court security arrest Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett after dramatic testimony from skinny prisoners about paper-thin bologna and cold grits. The hearing offered a rare look into Alabama's unusual practice of letting sheriffs pocket money left over from feeding inmates.

The sheriff, who showed no emotion when his arrest was ordered, had testified that he legally kept as personal income about $212,000 over three years with surplus meal money but denied that inmates were improperly fed.

Clemon, however, said the sheriff would be jailed until he comes up with a plan to provide the 300 jail inmates with nutrionally adequate meals, as required by a 2001 court order.

This is absolutely extraordinary! A judge locking up a Sheriff. I like this UW Clemon.

At the hearing, 10 prisoners told Clemon meals are so small that they're forced to buy snacks from a for-profit store the jailers operate. Most of the inmates appeared thin, with baggy jail coveralls hanging off their frames.

Some testified they spent hundreds of dollars a month at the store, which Bartlett said generates profits used for training and equipment.

Inmates told of getting half an egg, a spoonful of oatmeal and one piece of toast most days at their 3 a.m. daily breakfast. Lunch is usually a handful of chips and two sandwiches with barely enough peanut butter to taste.

"It looks like it was sprayed on with an aerosol can," testified Demetrius Hines, adding he's lost at least 35 pounds in five months since his arrest on drug charges.

Most prisoners said they supplement the meals by spending $20 a week or more on chips, oatmeal pies and other junk food at the jailhouse store.

Bartlett said he made about $95,000 last year feeding inmates after also receiving money from the county and the U.S. government for housing federal prisoners. Despite rising food costs, Bartlett said he made a $62,000 profit in 2007 and $55,000 in 2006.

Bartlett said he uses donations and special deals to make money. As an example, Bartlett said he and a neighboring sheriff recently split the $1,000 cost for an 18-wheeler full of corn dogs.

Prisoners testified they ate corn dogs twice a day for weeks.

I must admit I found the 'aerosol peanut butter' crack hysterically funny!

Allowing the Sheriff to directly profit from the kitchen of the jail is practiced in 55 of Alabama's 67 counties. Hopefully this case will set precedent and this idiotic practice will soon come to an end or at the very least Sheriff's will feed inmates more adequate diets.