Association reseaches consensus on jail catering; salaries similar to circuit judges’ sought
By Sheryl Marsh
The Decatur Daily
Ala. sheriff jailed over measly meals
DECATUR, Ala. A lobbyist for the state’s sheriffs says he has a consensus to turn over feeding of inmates to county commissions.
The lobbyist, Bobby Timmons, director of the Alabama Sheriffs Association, said he met with 47 of the state’s 67 sheriffs Tuesday in Autauga County.
The group discussed changing a 1939 law that allows them to pocket money left after feeding inmates.
Timmons got the sheriffs’ input on legislation he’s drafting to give all food allocation m1oney to county commissions.
He is also drafting separate legislation to increase sheriffs’ salaries to a percentage of what circuit judges make. The beginning salary for a circuit judge is $119,000, according to the state Administrative Office of Courts.
“The whole purpose for it (meeting) was to talk about what we’re going to do because there has to be accountability,” said Timmons.
Timmons called the meeting after U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon held Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett in contempt for inadequately feeding inmates and ordered him to federal prison. Clemon released Bartlett after the sheriff agreed not to take leftover food money and spend it for inmate food.
“It’s a gray area in the law that you have to really look deep into,” said Timmons. “It’s like a black hole. You have to know how deep that thing is before you jump in.”
Expressing frustration
Frustrations were expressed at the meeting that area sheriffs including Bartlett, Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely and Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Mitchell attended.
“We had a lot of venting,” Timmons said. “A lot of them are losing money and would love for the county to take it over, but counties don’t have any money either. I was amazed at how many of them that were in the hole. About 10 or 20 of them were in the hole, and some had to borrow money to pay their grocery bill.”
Timmons said Mitchell is breaking even feeding inmates in Lawrence County.
“If he has any left over he puts it back into the fund,” Timmons said. “He’s doing pretty good. He makes accountability for the food and keeps the money in the fund.”
Blakely has overages.
“He (Blakely) has surplus. He doesn’t come up short, mainly because of the extras he gets like the corndogs, and he got a load of hams,” Timmons said.
Bartlett testified at the hearing that he and Blakely got a deal on a truckload of corndogs by paying $500 each for transportation.
In counties where sheriffs do not control the food money, the amount to feed inmates is higher than the $1.75 the state gives per inmate, said Timmons.
“Those counties are paying $2 and upward,” said Timmons. “One county is paying $2.72 per inmate.”
Timmons said he will now research the old state law.
“My next step is research about the distribution of fees in the law,” he said. “I’ll look in the journal at the original act and then put it in act form.
“I’m hoping to have it out before the week is over to let sheriffs look at it, and then I’ll present it at the legislative session in February.”
The group discussed increasing pay for sheriffs.
“We’re looking at distribution right now, but we talked about pay and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be in the same categories as district attorneys or judges,” he said.
“We will go by population, too. We’ll go into a percentage factor of what a circuit judge makes.”
Morgan commissioners are opposed to increasing Bartlett’s salary on par with circuit judges or district attorneys, who also earn more than $100,000 a year.
They said they would consider a moderate increase of Bartlett’s $64,000 salary.
Copyright 2009 The Decatur Daily