AL Sherrifs Risk Being Sued After Violating Public Records Act

Alabama sheriffs need to respond to a request for documents on jail food allowances or risk being sued for violating the state's public-records law.

The case of county sheriffs and the money they pocket after feeding inmates just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

Last week, The Decatur Daily reported on a letter stamped "confidential" from Bobby Timmons, executive director of the Alabama Sheriffs Association, to county sheriffs around the state. Sheriffs had received a letter dated Jan. 29 from the Southern Center for Human Rights asking them for public records that would show how much money sheriffs had received in food allowances, how much they had spent feeding prisoners and how much they had left over for the years 2004 through 2008.

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