Alabama sheriff pocketed more than he spent on jail food

Updated Mar 26, 4:41 PM; Posted Mar 26, 2:50 PM

By Kyle Whitmire kwhitmire@al.com

On Friday, Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin released a lot of documents. The packet of paper he gave to the media was about an inch thick.
....

But you know what wasn't in that packet? All the records the Southern Center for Human Rights and Alabama Appleseed sought through a public information request -- the bank statements, check registers and other documents that show how he's spending his jail food funds and who's getting that money. ... That's the most important thing for us to see right now. And he's still keeping that secret.

There are a couple of things wrong with that. ... First, we know from one check Reckon's Connor Sheets obtained that Entrekin pays for personal expenses out of the jail food fund. At least once, he paid a man to mow his grass with that fund. ... Without seeing the jail food fund bank records, it's impossible to tell whether he reported that as compensation to the IRS. It's also impossible to tell what all else he's paying for out of the fund.
....

Depending on how you dice the onion, it appears he's either feeding all his prisoners with federal money or pocketing federal money, or maybe both.