Two advocacy groups have sued Alabama sheriffs seeking records about whether the sheriffs are profiting from the food they serve in their jails.
The Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights and the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice filed the lawsuit yesterday against 49 sheriffs they said did not comply with a public records request.
Alabama law allows sheriffs to keep leftover food money. A federal judge in 2009 ordered one Alabama sheriff, nicknamed "Sheriff Corndog" to be jailed, because he made $200,000 over three years while inmates ate corndogs twice a day.
Alabama Appleseed executive director Frank Knaack said the public has a right to know whether sheriffs "are meeting the basic human needs of incarcerated people in their care, or are instead filling their personal coffers."