Housing and feeding inmates has been an issue since we began housing and feeding inmates. It's like everything in government, we want criminals behind bars but we don't want to pay to keep them there. Feed them bread and water and make them turn big rocks into little rocks with a sledge hammer.
That's fiction, not reality
Sheriff Grover Smith is one of 49 Alabama sheriffs who has been named in a lawsuit claiming he's not turning over documents that show whether or not he personally gained from leftover money intended to feed inmates. That question will be answered as it travels through the courts.
The real issue centers around what the state pays counties to feed state inmates in county jails. Set by law in the 1970s, it's $1.75 per day per inmate. Based on a 30-day month, sheriffs and county commissions across this state are asked to feed an inmate three meals a day for an entire month at a cost of $52.50. When that money doesn't stretch the local tax payers are forced to pick up the bill to feed state inmates.
That could possibly be done with bread and water but the federal courts have said that's not legal.
We agree with Smith that if the state simply provided the food to feed its inmates housed in county jails instead of sending the $1.75 per day we wouldn't be having this conversation – there would be no money, simply food.
The lawsuit will play out, but the big issue will remain as to whose responsibility it is to feed, clothe and provide medical care to state inmates.
It's an issue the Alabama Legislature needs to address asap.
