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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Wed Jul 11, 2018, 05:40 PM Jul 2018

Alabama Bans Sheriffs from Pocketing Jail Food Money

Source: PoliticalWire


July 11, 2018 at 3:47 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

“Alabama’s governor has cut off a gravy train for the state’s sheriffs: the unspent money for prisoners’ meals that the sheriffs have long been allowed to keep for themselves,” the New York Times reports.

“The practice, born of a bickered-over ambiguity in a state law, has let sheriffs pocket likely millions of tax dollars over decades. To end it, Gov. Kay Ivey ordered in a memorandum to the state comptroller that payments of funds related to jail food “no longer be made to the sheriffs personally.” Instead, the governor wrote, the money must be paid to county general funds or official accounts.”

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Read more: https://politicalwire.com/2018/07/11/alabama-bans-sheriffs-from-pocketing-jail-food-money/

12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Alabama Bans Sheriffs from Pocketing Jail Food Money (Original Post) DonViejo Jul 2018 OP
How about if they spend it on prisoners' meals? LisaM Jul 2018 #1
Not much has changed since Brubaker, not in these red states anyway. sandensea Jul 2018 #2
Sweep it under the rug, why don't you? bucolic_frolic Jul 2018 #3
My gawd, how does this even happen in the first place? LiberalLovinLug Jul 2018 #4
I'm with you... Phentex Jul 2018 #9
DUH Equinox Moon Jul 2018 #5
This reminds me of the time my wife's business was broken into. Ohioboy Jul 2018 #6
That's crazy!... Phentex Jul 2018 #8
The money was stolen out of evidence localroger Jul 2018 #10
So the incentive still exists to short the prisoner's food procon Jul 2018 #7
Stealing food? Mendocino Jul 2018 #11
Alabama's sheriffs are at this moment figuring out a way to skirt this jmowreader Jul 2018 #12

LisaM

(27,762 posts)
1. How about if they spend it on prisoners' meals?
Wed Jul 11, 2018, 05:42 PM
Jul 2018

God only knows what they prisoners have been eating as long as this has been going on.

LiberalLovinLug

(14,154 posts)
4. My gawd, how does this even happen in the first place?
Wed Jul 11, 2018, 05:50 PM
Jul 2018

it opens the door to all kinds of corruption. The worst of which is "arrangements" with those in charge of the prisoners meals to order the cheapest, unhealthiest, and meager food supply they can in order to guarantee a surplus which they hand over to sheriffs, (after a nice tidy kickback)

I agree with Lisa M, if the money is budgeted for prisoners meals, spend it on prisoners meals. I have no doubt they could be eating better.

Ohioboy

(3,223 posts)
6. This reminds me of the time my wife's business was broken into.
Wed Jul 11, 2018, 06:09 PM
Jul 2018

This is not the same thing as keeping food money, but I think it's kind of similar.


About 4 years ago my wife's business was broken into and 300 dollars in petty cash and some stereo equipment were stolen. The police caught a guy with 300 dollars and our exact stereo equipment, which we identified. They kept everything for awhile as evidence, which seemed reasonable. But, when it was time to get the stuff back they gave us the stereo equipment but not the money. When we complained they acted like they couldn't do anything about the money because they couldn't tell exactly who it belonged to, and that we should sue the guy that stole it and try to get it back. This is no lie. We had so many things going on at the time, sickness in the family and other matters, that we never pursued it. I know the police just kept that money.

localroger

(3,605 posts)
10. The money was stolen out of evidence
Wed Jul 11, 2018, 09:24 PM
Jul 2018

It's a major embarrassment for them to admit that that could happen at all, so they just deny deny deny. But yeah at some point someone grabbed the cash and the cameras didn't catch them, probably because they knew where the cameras are in the evidence room, and la-di-da. But you should have had a receipt for both the equipment and the cash. The receipt is what you wave in their face to make them come up with something.

procon

(15,805 posts)
7. So the incentive still exists to short the prisoner's food
Wed Jul 11, 2018, 06:12 PM
Jul 2018

to increase the state funds available to those same sheriffs who will find some way to enrich themselves. Its still a scam. The mandate should be to spend all the allocated funds on food.

jmowreader

(50,453 posts)
12. Alabama's sheriffs are at this moment figuring out a way to skirt this
Thu Jul 12, 2018, 12:05 AM
Jul 2018

If they're not doing it, whoever in the county is in charge of handling general funds is.

There are two ways to truly fix this, and I guarantee they'll do neither.

The first way is to issue prison food on an in-kind basis - instead of giving the counties money to buy food, a big truck shows up on a regular basis and unloads food into the jail's pantry.

The more-acceptable alternative is to have the current food suppliers bill the state rather than the counties.

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