Posted on 05/16/2008 11:58:26 AM PDT by decimon
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Back in the day of chain gangs, Alabama passed a law that gave sheriffs $1.75 a day to feed each prisoner in their jails, and the sheriffs got to pocket anything that was left over.
More than 80 years later, most Alabama counties still operate under this system, with the same $1.75-a-day allowance, and some sheriffs are actually making money on top of their salaries. But exactly how much is something of a mystery because state auditors do not have access to sheriffs' private accounts.
How could anyone turn a profit feeding men and women for an entire day on less than the price of a Coke and a bag of Fritos? Sheriffs practice Depression-style frugality and rely on such things as day-old bread, cut-rate vegetables and cheap inmate labor.
Critics charge that Alabama is, in effect, paying law enforcement to skimp on food and may be rewarding sheriffs for mistreating prisoners.
"It's a bad system, and it ought not be that way," said Buddy Sharpless, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama.
A prisoner advocate said he constantly hears complaints about jail food.
"Most of it is like powdered food, and the portions are minimal in the county jails," said the Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, who visits Alabama jails to register prisoners to vote.
The few sheriffs who would discuss the arrangement defended it as cost-effective for their counties and disputed any suggestion they are making a lot of money.
"If you've got the most lucrative food account in the state, you're not getting rich," said Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely.
They noted, too, that it's not all gravy for them: The system makes them personally liable for budget shortfalls and, possibly, lawsuits over jail food.
The head of the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts, Ron Jones, said state auditors cannot determine how much some sheriffs are making off the system because the lawmen put the money in personal accounts.
In Morgan County, which includes Decatur, a state audit found that Sheriff Greg Bartlett spent $163,991 feeding inmates and personally received an additional $103,947 for two years ending in May 2005. But Jones said there was no way for auditors to determine how much of the money that went to the sheriff was profit, because sheriffs may be buying food out of their own pockets. Bartlett did not return calls for comment.
When Etowah County Sheriff James Hayes died in October, thousands of dollars in jail food money went to his estate because it was kept in his personal accounts.
His successor, Todd Entrekin, said he and his wife took out a personal loan for $150,000 the day he took office to purchase jail food until his first state payment came through.
"It's the most money I've ever borrowed in my life, even more than for my house," Entrekin said.
According to legislative researchers, the $1.75-a-day-per-inmate system in Alabama dates to 1927, back when sheriffs and other county officeholders in many states were paid fixed fees for services performed and were allowed to keep whatever was left over.
All but 12 of Alabama's 67 county jails remain on the fee system, with the state paying a total of $5 million to 55 sheriffs last year.
National corrections groups said they do not know of any other states with a system like Alabama's, though some individual counties may use a fee system.
The $1.75 fee was fairly generous at the time, with a reasonable profit built into it for the sheriffs. Besides the $1.75, sheriffs get additional state payments of as much as $11.25 a day for the entire jail. But in a jail with hundreds of inmates, that works out to just a few extra pennies per person for food.
By comparison, the government pays schools $2.47 for serving a single free meal under the National School Lunch Program for low-income students.
Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver said he has figured out how to feed prisoners on $1.75 a day and still turn a little profit, and he doesn't get complaints about the grub.
"These people eat better here than they eat on the street, and they eat three times a day," Shaver said.
He said he is constantly on the lookout for good deals on food, pays two cooks and supplements their work with trusty labor, and wastes nothing, turning today's leftovers tomorrow's soup.
Blakely, the Limestone County sheriff, said he searches for deals on fresh vegetables, eggs and milk. Prisoners get three meals on weekdays, two on weekends and holidays. "They get a lot of beans, but we feed them meat every day," Blakely said.
The menu on a recent day in the Limestone County Jail was two pancakes and syrup, sausage and milk for breakfast; peanut butter sandwiches, chips and Kool-Aid for lunch; and white beans, turnip greens, fried squash, cornbread and sweet tea for dinner.
Blakely and Shaver would not say exactly how much money they make off the jail food system but said it is not a lot. Entrekin said he has not been sheriff long enough to say whether he is turning a profit for himself.
Blakely said prisoners who enter the jail late at night on charges such as drunken driving and make bail early the next day without eating a meal help the bottom line because the state pays for two days of food — $3.50 — without the sheriff having to spend a cent.
Inmate William Howell said state prisons offer more food than Blakely's jail. But he said the food in state prison isn't nearly as good.
"It's not like they go down to the bread store and catch it coming out of the oven, but it's good," Howell said. "We've got it good here."
I suppose that it is a crime not to be spending MORE tax payer money to feed criminals.
“entire day on less than the price of a Coke and a bag of Fritos?”
Buy in bulk.
At one time I read the average cost of an airplane meal (when they were good) was 38 cents each.
Rather than breathlessly hinting at some sort of wrongdoing, other states should be learning from Alabama’s frugality. This is one of the few instances I’ve seen, of “waste” and “government” not being synonymous.
In real time $1.75 is about $1.75 too much.
Hey, you’re not in prison to savor the food. So suck it up, cupcake. You got bigger problems.
You’re in jail...if you wanted to eat steaks and other fine foods, you should have thought about that before you decided to bust a cap in his arse.
Sally Struthers says that you can feed the poor in South America on twenty cents a day.
These guys are cheating the taxpayer.
“How could anyone turn a profit feeding men and women for an entire day on less than the price of a Coke and a bag of Fritos?”
EASY... Soylent Green.
“Buddy Sharpless”? I’ll bet he is.
Bulk is the key to feeding any huge group of folks. I knew a Air Force chow hall manager who messed up his funding one summer and was seriously short on funding for the final quarter of the financial year. The guy went out and bought chicken in bulk....and started serving chicken for almost every single lunch and dinner...in some fashion. Everyone after two months...was sick of chicken...even though the guy had over 40 different recipes that he was using. As he proved....you can be half-way broke and still make it if you buy in bulk.
I was of two minds in reading this. It at first sounds a system begging for abuse but, if done right, the incentives of the thing could work well all around.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona does it for $0.30 per DAY.
Sheriff Joe could feed 5.8 prisoners for the same $1.75 Alabama spends to feed 1 prisoner!
This could explain the obesity of prisoners in the South.
"The average meal costs about 15 cents, and inmates are fed only twice daily, to cut the labor costs of meal delivery. He even stopped serving them salt and pepper to save tax payers $20,000 a year."
Just because they are in jail does NOT mean they are criminals. it is becoming more and more apparent that Innocent people are being locked up just for the hell of it. As a matter of fact several DAs have bragged that they convicted innocent people as a matter of their personal business.
Works for me.
At the national prison is was a little better. They mixed in sand with rice and pounded it to remove the hulls. Then they cooked the whole thing (sand and rice) and served it to the prisoners.
EVERYONE new this and most did not want to go to jail.
Why aren’t they made to grow some of their own food? Instead of basketball courts or taxpayer funded law libraries, grow a garden. They could probably cut the cost of vegetables to pennies and have surplus on top of that. What’s a better incentive to good behavior than “if you don’t work, you don’t eat.”
Ramen Noodles.
For all three meals.
20 cents each, grand total per day, 60 cents!
They landed in prison for a REASON: They didn't care about the law-abiding people when they committed crimes against them.
Why should the law-abiding people pay for the prisoner's amenities?
As if I don't already pay enough in taxes, there is always some democrat idiot out there to try to get Americans to pay even more.
Idiots, all.
Amen to that!
He’s .75 cents per man too generous .
Not to mention the fact that the county jails house a lot of people who are awaiting trial haven’t been convicted of anything. Locking them up may be necessary to ensure that they show up in court, but the punishment shouldn’t start until AFTER a conviction.
Ramen noodles man. 25 cents a pack.
I had an opportunity to tour the Hillsborough County Jail outside of Tampa as part of a group going through the Hillsborough Leadership Program which just so happened to included lunch at the facility.
The short answer is... The food was great, but the accommodations left a little something to be desired. :-)
Prisoners have a constitutional right to a law library.
For a dimocrat thats not enough money, if it were to be $1,000,000/ daily it STILL wouldn't be enough for a dimocrat.
Money is no object.
As long as there is 60 cents to be xfered, that's 60 cents toward achieving more political power.
Being bad can pay to a liberal democrat.
Since prisoners became a worthy political concern.
His major complaint when we bailed him was that he'd eaten so much lobster in the last three days that he had gout. Dukes County was spending $28 a day on food in the 80s.
When I served in Korea ('89-'91, the same was told to us GIs.
When I served in Korea ('89-'91, the same was told to us GIs. Korean jails were not good.
“Most of it is like powdered food, and the portions are minimal in the county jails,” said the Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, who visits Alabama jails to register prisoners to vote.”
- Demorats out recruiting
Ramen noodles are TEN cents a pack on sale!
Add meat & vegetables and it’s a tasty, cheap, nourishing meal.
If all that perps facing hard time had to look forward to was Nutriloaf mornin’, noon, and night, it could deter a few of them.
The interesting stat would be to see what the jail grub number is all across the 50 states.
And also compare it with what the school kids breakfast & lunch budgets are.
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Read the Constitution but didn’t see that part.
Gee...my copy of the Constution must be defective - I've never seen that in there anywhere.
I agree with you.
They should PAY the prison for their upkeep.
If they want steak - PAY FOR IT.
I am so sick and tired of supporting criminals and others. There has never been any ROI on that bunch.
Yes, they do. Another poster has a strong point, that there are people locked up in jail who have not been convicted of any crime, just accused, and are simply awaiting trial.
Reality is that when you starve inmates and do not provide them enough food / nutrition to keep them reasonably healthy, you are asking for increased violence and an increased need for staffing. All of this translates into huge dollars out of the Dept of Corrections budget, which here in CA is already in outer space with spending. There are many other ways to cut spending in prisons, while making sure they have enough to eat.
It’s very clever to say — they shouldn’t do the crime if they don’t like the food — but that’s just ignorant, when it comes to the reality of what actually goes on in prison.
Any society is to be judged on how they treat their prisoners. America should be ashamed. If you think inmates in this country have it “good”, you don’t know anyone who is actually incarcerated.
Doesn't sound to me like the inmates are starving or malnurished on that diet. Fact is, sounds like they are eating better than I am.
If memory serves correctly in the 40’s and early 50’s there were several state farms where the inmates raised food and livestock. There may still be some around.
...and the medical costs of inmates also increases dramatically when food / nutrition is below the bare minimum required to sustain human life. You think I’m exaggerating? Again...then you don’t know anyone who is actually in prison.
It’s easy for many of you in here to talk about how you’re sick of people who care about the rights of the convicted in this country. If you are a Christian person, the Bible is clear about how you should think of those locked up, whether they’re guilty or not.
Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Hebrews 13:3
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance...For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink...I was in prison and you came to visit me. I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (words of Jesus Himself) — Matt. 25:34-45
Kudos to Sheriff Blakely. Someone should give him a commission to write a cookbook.
Somehow I missed that section...LOL
I agree 100% with you. I remember not long ago in LA county jails they wrote a letter to the editor complaining they were being forced to deliver to high a quality food product to the jails that average consumers did not have or could afford.
It doesn’t seem too hard. Have them grow or raise there own food.
Let them eat cake.
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