An Alabama sheriff who made $212,000 in the last three years by feeding inmates what a judge said were skimpy portions was released from prison Thursday after submitting a plan pledging to feed them better. [More]Hey, he's just taking advantage of a menu of incentives designed to reward "Only Ones" while the productive sector picks up the tab...
[Via ML and somebody else--I can't find the email]
Sound to me like the "law" in question should be changed.
ReplyDeleteIt also sounds like the "judge" should be removed from the bench -- and possibly put in jail himself.
The sheriff is apparently in compliance with the law; he should not have been put in a cell (at least not for this reason).
If a judge can come up with a legitimate basis to declare the law void due to violation of the Constitution (state or federal), well and good. That does not mean he gets to arbitrarily jail sheriffs that act in accordance with an apparently valid statute just because he doesn't "like" it. Even after declaring the "law" void, he _still_ doesn't get to arbitrarily jail the sheriff -- the sheriff would need to charged, tried convicted of violating an _existing_ statute.
From a legal aspect, I must agree with Bob R. However, why do I seem to keep seeing images in my head of starving prisoners being worked to death on starvation rations as a precept of the "Final Solution".
ReplyDeleteOh wait, no American would do anything like that. Would they???
Not providing sufficient nutrition to naintain weight of a normal weight individual appears to me to be a violation of the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." I'm ready to serve on that jury.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the Gulag! Didn't Pogo state that "I have met the enemy and they are us."