Last month, Alabama Media Group reporter Connor Sheets resurrected the decades-old controversy with his report on how an interpretation of a Depression-era statute allows Alabama’s sheriffs to pocket any extra money left over after purchasing food for inmates from funds designated for jail food.
Sheets singled out Monroe County Sheriff Tom Tate, who was one of the only sheriffs to respond to a Southern Center for Human Rights request asking how much money his department received from federal state and municipal governments to feed inmates from 2014 through 2016, and how that money was spent.
According to Sheets’ report, $110,459.77 was “declared excess and paid to Sheriff Thomas Tate.”
In the March 1 edition of The Monroe Journal, the Monroeville-based newspaper that covers Monroe County, a report from paper managing editor Mike Qualls offered a response from Tate, who denied wrongdoing.
“Everything I do related to feeding the inmates is in compliance with state law,” Tate said. “I haven’t done anything outside the law. And, as hard as I work at it, it hurts my feelings to be accused of doing something wrong.”
The Journal went on to quote Tate claiming a resolution was drafted to give the county commission the duty of feeding inmates, but he contended that body didn’t want that responsibility.
Tate also claimed there were years he “went in the hole trying to feed the inmates.”
The issue of sheriffs being allowed to keep those excess monies has long been a subject of controversy.
In 2009, then-Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett was jailed by U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon for serving “woefully insufficient” meals that enabled him to pocket more than $200,000, according to a January 9, 2009 CNN report.
Reportedly, Bartlett, along with Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely, purchased an 18-wheeler load of corn dogs for $500 each. Bartlett fed them to inmates as meals for weeks and that in part allowed him to accumulate the $200,000.
In 2006, then-Mobile County Sheriff Jack Tillman was convicted of misdemeanor charges related to money he received from the county jail food fund, which he placed into a personal retirement account. As part of his plea agreement, he was forced to repay $13,000.
Tate cited a 2008 Alabama Attorney General’s opinion written by Troy King as justification for how his department handles those funds.
“The sheriff may retain any surplus from the food service allowance as personal income,” King wrote according to The Monroe Journal.
Jeff Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and works as the editor of Breitbart TV. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeff_poor.
