Alabama Bans Sheriffs from Pocketing Jail Food Money

“Alabama’s governor has cut off a gravy train for the state’s sheriffs: the unspent money for prisoners’ meals that the sheriffs have long been allowed to keep for themselves,” the New York Times reports.

“The practice, born of a bickered-over ambiguity in a state law, has let sheriffs pocket likely millions of tax dollars over decades. To end it, Gov. Kay Ivey ordered in a memorandum to the state comptroller that payments of funds related to jail food “no longer be made to the sheriffs personally.” Instead, the governor wrote, the money must be paid to county general funds or official accounts.”