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The Governor of Alabama began cutting a train of juice for the sheriffs of the state: unspent money for prisoners' meals that sheriffs have long been allowed to keep for themselves.
The practice, born of an ambiguity in a state law, has left sheriffs pocketing the money of taxpayers who over the decades has almost certainly run into the millions. To reduce the practice, Governor Kay Ivey ordered in a memorandum to the state controller that payments from some funds related to prison food "are no longer made personally to sheriffs." Instead, writes the governor, the money must be paid general funds or official accounts.
"Public funds should be used for public purposes," Republican Ivey said in a statement released on Wednesday. "It's as simple as that."
Critics of the practice praised the governor's action Wednesday but said that she only solved one part of the problem as it did not apply to all types of payments related to food in prison.
movement is sure to infest sheriffs in at least some of the 67 counties of Alabama, and the order of the governor can be tested in the courts. The economic disclosure forms filed by the sheriffs suggest that many do not take the remaining money, sometimes because of local laws. Records show that the Sheriff of Etowah County, in northeastern Alabama, has taken more than $ 670,000 in recent years.
The Alabama Sheriffs Association did not respond to a message Wednesday on the order of the governor. Several sheriffs and their allies have in the past called for changes in a system that, according to critics, was unique in the United States and created a powerful incentive to cut corners and mistreat prisoners. But, barring a change in state law, the sheriffs argued that keeping the unspent funds for personal use was legal and acceptable.
This practice has been the subject of periodic controversy. In 2009, a federal judge imprisoned the Morgan County Sheriff after finding that the sheriff had "blatantly" breached previous agreements to take care of the prisoners
while the sheriff had kept more than $ 200,000. breakfast that Morgan County served to prisoners was sometimes nothing more than a slice of toast, a portion of egg and several spoonfuls of oatmeal. At one point, prisoners were fed with corn dogs at each meal for about three months, after two sheriffs in the area bought a sausage truck at a bargain price . ]
And this year, when the Alabama Media Group described the Etowah County Sheriff's treatment of leftover food, he reported that he had bought a beach house for $ 740,000. The sheriff, who said he was acting in accordance with state law and angrily denied having committed wrongdoing, was defeated last month in a primary. He did not reply to a message on Wednesday
. Ivey, a former state treasurer who became governor last year, said in his brief to the comptroller that "recent events have drawn my attention to this policy" and she asked the governor of the state. Legislative Assembly to amend the wording of the Depression Act.
The governor's lawyers acknowledged in an internal review that Alabama's attorneys general had drawn conflicting conclusions about the remaining funds.
One, Troy King, ruled in 2008 the view that a "sheriff can retain any surplus food service allowance as personal income" and noted that "most State sheriffs have kept the food and service allowances for their personal income for years. " in 2011, presents himself again for the Attorney General this year; he is competing in the second round of Republicans on July 17th. He was not available to comment on Wednesday.
In the last two decades, however, two other attorneys general have concluded that sheriffs are not entitled to surplus food. money. In the most recent opinion, in 2011, Luther Strange stated that "neither the sheriff nor the county can use the surplus for any other purpose than future expenditures to feed the prisoners."
The governor's office explained why the practice of personally paying the sheriffs food money and allowing them to keep any surplus remained in effect after this decision. In an email Wednesday, Clinton Carter, state finance director, said that Alabama officials had recently "reevaluated our interpretation" of Strange's opinion in 2011. [19659002] End-of-practice advocates call for abolition "For decades, some sheriffs in Alabama have abused public confidence by making a personal profit on meeting the basic human needs of the people." people they were in charge of, "said Frank Knaack, general manager of Alabama Appleseed, a nonprofit group. in Montgomery who works on criminal justice issues. "We thank Governor Ivey for taking the first step to stem these abuses and urge Alabama lawmakers to consider his call to put an end to this situation for good."
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