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.
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