I'll give y'all my 2 cents on the article since I probably have a little more insight than most. When I got my Masters degree one of my professors, a very good one, was also a Federal Court Referee, which is the term they used. When federal courts received complaints on jails in Alabama he was the one they assigned to look into it and report to them. This was the early 2000s. I know one of the jails that he worked on A LOT was Walker County. This was well before Smith's time in office so the problems were major well before he got there and it sounds like he has acknowledged them and tried to make changes for the better. I also know that county jails are dependent on County gov'ts for funding and like most, Walker County doesn't want to provide the needed funding. Jails are always down the list of County Gov't priorities. Another thing, like some on here have mentioned, there is basically no state mental health help available for those in need of it. We can thank our state Republicans for this. As they began to take power over state gov't they have eroded funding for mental health. They closed Bryce Hospital and I think the one in south Alabama is closed too. Bottom line is Alabama has almost no state mental health system. If the state would fix this it would solve an untold amount of the crime problems. I don't like this article because it is placing blame on the Sheriff for issues that he doesn't have the resources given to him to fix.
This is not liberal mumbo jumbo. These are facts coming from a person who is generally conservative but has garnered these viewpoints from education and even more importantly, I have lived it through my career.
