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Sheriff, county tangle over inmate food money
Published March 12, 2009
GUNTERSVILLE — Marshall County’s sheriff said he has “done all I know to do” in a conflict between himself and the County Commission on the issue of feeding prisoners.
Sheriff Scott Walls said in a news conference Tuesday that county commissions are “point-blank refusing” to take over feeding county jail inmates, even though the state sheriff’s association last month passed a resolution requesting that all Alabama county commissions take over financial responsibility for feeding county inmates.
Walls said he is concerned the citizens “don’t particularly care about the issue — they’re tired of listening to this mess.”
The issue came to the forefront earlier this year when a federal judge ordered the Morgan County sheriff jailed for contempt in a dispute over proper feeding of inmates.
Sheriffs who are responsible for feeding their inmates receive $1.75 per prisoner per day from the state. U.W. Clemon, then a federal judge, ordered Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett to spend a night in jail as part of a suit by inmates who claimed they were fed less-than-substantial meals and forced to supplement their diets with high-priced snacks from the jail store.
Walls said the issue is not the fault of Alabama’s sheriffs.
“This totally falls on the county commissions across the state — that’s where the fault lies,” he said.
“(Commissioners) know the lawsuit is coming, but they’re still not talking about it. Instead they are passing resolutions that state, ‘We’re not going to touch it; we want no part of it.’”
One commissioner, Richard Kilgore, said the commission hasn’t discussed the issue. Kilgore, of Horton, took office in the fall. Still, he feels the sheriff should be responsible for feeding inmates.
“There’s just not any way that I can see that the commission can take that duty over from him,” Kilgore said Wednesday. “That’s all I can say about it. I just feel like it’s the sheriff’s duty.”
Kilgore said he wasn’t aware of the issue being raised except for Bartlett’s arrest.
Walls said he doesn’t think it’s right for a sheriff and his wife “to be personally responsible for feeding inmates.” Walls added that he doesn’t think its right that he makes less as sheriff of Marshall County’s 87,000 people — “and 25,000 illegal immigrants,” he said — than when he was police chief in Guntersville with about 8,000 residents.
The sheriff said citizens must understand that if he and the commissioners can’t come to an agreement on the issue, the county may face a “protracted court suit.” He also warned of the possibility of a class action suit against Alabama sheriffs or county commissions.
Walls held out little hope of the concerned parties getting together to discuss the issue.
“The problem is we have people who are just not going to do it,” he said. “How do you over come that? What ultimately happens is they kill the bills, they won’t talk, so it’s government as usual, and we sit here with a problem that has the potential to cost Marshall and every other county tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Walls said he is required to show how the food money comes in and is spent. Photographs are taken of the jail’s meals, with the date and time recorded on them.
“If so-and-so (prisoner) says he wasn’t fed right, you can come back at any time and look at the photographic record,” he said. “So there can’t be any of this peanut butter spread on bread stuff they’re talking about.”
Walls said he sends the state comptroller a report each month that shows the number of prisoners in the jail. The state then writes a check back to Walls, and he uses the money to pay all monthly food bills.
“Any remaining funds, by state law, become a part of my monthly salary,” he said. “And that has been true for every sheriff since 1939.”
Walls said about $30,000 was left over at the end of 2008.
“That money, as is true for every individual sheriff, is there in their personal account to spend as he wants to,” Walls said. “The sheriffs are not relieved of the responsibility of paying federal and state income taxes on the money. And the money does not pay for attorney’s fees if I should be sued over the running of the kitchen.
“Nor does the attorney’s bill go to the County Commission. It goes to Scott Walls. I have to defend myself.”
Kilgore said it would cost the commission more to feed the inmates than it does the sheriff because the commission would have to take bids for items.
Walls said he maintains the money in a separate account, out of which he writes checks for paying jail-related expenses.
“When I want to move that money out of there, I write a check out of that particular account for nothing but jail-related bills. That is all it is done for. I don’t write checks out of there for personal items; that’s not what that is for.”
Walls, with candor, said, “I feel very comfortable with telling you how it is. I’ve got nothing to hide. Why hide something when there is nothing to hide about it?”
Walls said commissioners don’t want the liability of feeding prisoners and said he relies on community donations to make the process work. He estimated about $80,000 in donations of surplus food items last year.
He estimated that, when donations are considered, about $5 per inmate is spent each day on feeding. Kilgore said he doubts the commission could accept donations like the sheriff can.
— Managing Editor David Clemons contributed to this report.
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