Decatur Alabama Sheriff Arrested...

[Tarheel]

Apparently for not feeding his inmates properly.  It doesn't say what he fed them (probably baloney sammiches or PB&J?) but he pocketed $212,000.00.  I wonder what this guy's party affiliation is?  Anyway I thought this was amusing compared to the "Hallal-friendly", ethnic meals the murderers in Gitmo get fed.

This is from the AP:

Federal judge arrests US sheriff over jail food
By JAY REEVES (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
January 07, 2009 7:48 PM EST

DECATUR, Alabama - A federal judge has ordered the arrest of an Alabama sheriff who was held in contempt of court for failing to adequately feed jail inmates while profiting from the skimpy meals.

U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon ordered marshals to take Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett into custody at the end of a hearing Wednesday in Decatur.

The sheriff had testified that he legally pocketed about $212,000 over three years with surplus meal money but denied that inmates were improperly fed. Alabama's unusual practice of letting sheriffs profit from feeding inmates dates back to the Depression.

Clemon, however, said the sheriff would be held until he comes up with a plan to provide the 300 jail inmates with nutrionally adequate meals, as required by an earlier court order.

the link:http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20090107/496436d0_3421_1334520090107-1208709923

[AUTiger1]

Bartlett Busted: U.S. Marshals Arrest Morgan County Sheriff

From Chief Investigative Reporter Greg Privett

January 7, 2009

Federal agents busted Morgan County sheriff Greg Bartlett, Wednesday night. They took him to the federal prison in Talladega.

Bartlett was busted all because of jail food.

WHNT NewsChannel 19's Special Investigations Unit revealed in 2007 how some Alabama sheriff's pocket jail food profit.

It's legal. But, it's controversial.

In Batlett's case, though, the judge has leverage to do something about it. That's because Morgan County's jail is operating under a federal consent decree.

U.S. Marshals tore through Decatur. They ran a stop sign, then a red light. What's their hurry? The marshals were rushing Sheriff Bartlett to jail. On his way to the federal lock-up, U.S. Marshals helped keep the sheriff out-of-sight from news cameras. Before we could get our camera rolling, a U.S. Marshal vehicle jumped a curb. A side door to Decatur's federal courthouse flew open. Then, Bartlett -- apparently uncuffed -- and a Marshal dove into the SUV, rushed off, and allowed the sheriff to make a stop at his office.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the building, another U.S. Marshal was pretending to get a car ready to take Bartlett away -- even going to the extreme of asking photographers to clear a path.

That may have been a charade, but Bartlett's arrest is real.

Federal judge U.W. Clemon is the one who ordered Bartlett behind bars. During Wednesday's hearing on jail food, Clemon said: "This court hereby orders U.S. Marshals to take Sheriff Greg Bartlett into custody. And he will remain in custody until he convinces the court that he will adopt measures to purge himself of contempt."

The civil contempt resulted from the way Bartlett feeds inmates in his jail. The judge said, "I find by clear and convincing evidence there's been an inadequate diet."

Clemon slammed the sheriff for pocketing jail food profit left over from what the state pays Bartlett to feed inmates. "It's in the sheriff's financial interest to pay as little for food as possible," Clemon reasoned.

The judge showed his disappointment at how Bartlett is, in effect, running his own business out of the jail's kitchen. Taxpayers provide the free kitchen. Businesses often donate food. Or Bartlett buys it at a bargain.

In court, Sheriff Bartlett testified he recently paid just $500 for his half of an 18-wheeler load of insurance-salvaged corn dogs. He split the haul with Limestone County sheriff Mike Blakely.

Bartlett's kitchen even has a supervising sergeant who has his own county-owned Chevy Tahoe complete with county-provided gasoline.

Plus, the sheriff gets free help from inmates. Some of those inmates complained they were going hungry.

Clemon ruled, "The court finds that the sheriff has failed to provide a nutritionally adequate diet to inmates of the Morgan County jail because it is in his best interest not to do so. He makes money by failing to spend the designated funds for food for the inmates. Last year, he supplemented his salary by nearly $100,000."

After keeping his profit a secret, Bartlett was forced in court to admit he made $95,000 in jail food profit last year. In 2007, his profit was $62,000. And he took home $55,000 in profit in 2006. Add that to Bartlett's annual salary of around $65,000.

Judge Clemon wasn't happy. "The sheriff's conduct in this regard was knowing and willful and cannot be tolerated by this court," he said from the bench.

Clemon said Sheriff Bartlett holds the key to his jail cell. Basically, that means if Bartlett offers the judge what he wants to hear, then he'll go free. Bartlett's attorneys have already submitted a proposal they faxed to the judge's home Wednesday night. That proposal likely includes the sheriff giving up any jail food profit.

http://www.whnt.com/Global/story.asp?S=9636585

[AUTiger1]

Thought I would post the above article for some more info and here is a little more. 

Judge OKs Release of Alabama Sheriff Jailed Over Food

Associated Press - January 8, 2009 2:14 PM ET

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A federal judge has ordered the release of an Alabama sheriff he locked up for purposely feeding inmates skimpy meals so he could make money off the jail kitchen.

U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon issued a brief order Thursday saying Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett could be freed based on promises from his lawyer, who presented the court with a plan for improving the jailhouse meals.

The sheriff's whereabouts weren't immediately clear. But Clemon ordered his arrest late Wednesday after a hearing in which Bartlett said he made $212,000 over three years by cheaply feeding prisoners, some of whom complained of constant hunger in jail.

Bartlett kept the money legally under a Depression-era state law and said he reported the jailhouse profit on his tax forms as income.

http://www.whnt.com/Global/story.asp?S=9640932

[Tarheel]

Corn dogs, eh?  For inmates.  There's got to be a joke there somewhere.

[AUTailgatingRules]

I'm sure even with shitty meals, many of them are eating better than they did before going to jail.  I once heard that free food is the best food.

[Ogre]

Not so sure about Decatur, but I can attest that the food at the Auburn City Jail is absolutely horrible.

[Ranger12]

He is actually the Morgan County Sheriff. The Morgan County jail is in Decatur, but ran by the Morgan County Commission. The city of Decatur has nothing do to with them. Just thought I would clear that up, not that I really care anything about protecting the city of Decatur, because it is ran by a bunch of idiots also.

Sheriff Bartlett has had a few issues with the Morgan County Commission, especially one commissioner (Stacy George) who ran against him as sheriff this past election. The issue of feeding the inmates correctly, and him pocketing the money has came up before, but since it was legal for him to pocket the money, as previous sheriffs have also done, there was nothing that could be done. They would have to propose an amendment change to get rid of that law. Besides that, he has done some other things that I believe lacked integrity and was taking advantage of tax payers money. I originally voted for them man, because of sort of knew him through some acquaintances, but now the more I find out about him, the more I think he is a dick who ran for the job just for the perks and status.

The Morgan County Commission is now full of "good ole' boys". The one commissioner, Stacy George, who would constantly question those good ole' boys, lost his re-election bid. At first, I thought the guy was just grandstanding and trying to get his name in the paper so he annoyed me, but as I found out more on how really crooked the other commissioners were, he was basically just doing the same thing I would do in his position, he was calling them out on their crooked bs. Unfortunately the whole county votes for all the commissioners instead of just voting for the one that represents their district, so while Stacy George overwhelmingly won his district, he barely lost the county wide vote. His opponent? Another former good ole' boy who owns a Chevy dealership. 

Back to the story...I normally have no sympathy with inmates who whine about how hard they have it. It is not supposed to be just like they are back at the crib. However, the state gives Bartlett $1.75 a day per inmate to feed them. That ain't a whole lot to begin with. Then this guy has been pocketing on average around $70,000 dollars a year (almost $100,000 one year) from the leftover money? It does not take a genius to figure out something very wrong is going on.

[Pell City Tiger]

Corn dogs, eh?  For inmates.  There's got to be a joke there somewhere.

Insurance-salvaged corn dogs at that.

The guys at WJOX were talking about this on the show today. They said breakfast for these jailbirds consisted of half an egg and a scoop of grits. Lunch was a nearly meatless sandwich with some chips, and dinner was usually a thinly sliced bologna sandwich with another handful of chips.

I'm all about prisoners having as hard a time as possible, but there is something wrong with this situation.

[Ranger12]

About a year ago, I had a class with a young guy who had just quit being a Morgan County jailer. He told me that what they fed the inmates was ridiculous and there were other things that Bartlett encouraged that he was afraid would get him in some legal trouble, which is why he quit. This guy would tell me other stories about Bartlett cheating on his wife with a secretary that worked for Morgan County and a bunch of other less then reputable things about the guy. Hearing all of that is what led me to find out more things from other people about him. He is basically somebody that has not left high school, as in he looks for ways to be seen and to be popular.

As for that secretary thing, it came out a few months ago in the Decatur Daily that he had filed for a marriage license with this secretary chick just as the mandatory "waiting limit" on getting remarried after his recent divorce ended.

Also, a few months ago, one of the IT guys that worked for the County Comission was going to get fired because it was found out that he was in New Orleans instead of at a tech conference in Biloxi that the county had paid for the guy to go to. Guess who was in New Orleans at the same time for another conference? Sheriff Greg Bartlett, who as it turned it was the guy that recommended that the commission send the IT guy to the Biloxi conference because it was about law enforcement computer technology. When the commission asked for a certificate from the conference that the IT guy attended, he could not provide one and when they checked to get the certificate, they dude never signed in at the conference. So, when the commission was going to fire him, Bartlett had him transferred over as the Sheriff Department's own IT guy and took it out of his own budget.