Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Grits for Breakfast

Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

County Commissioners key to jail decisions

I'm always pleased to see policy debates about public safety make it into electoral campaigns, but the back and forth in Dallas this election cycle between the incumbent Sheriff and challenger over the jail have confirmed my sense that County Commissioners Court races are where jail problems and solutions really need to be discussed.Last week at the Dallas News, Kevin Krause analyzed the two Sheriff campaigns' descriptions of the jail's problems and who's to blame and pronounced, "Neither is entirely correct" ("No easy answers on jail: Frequently cited issue in Dallas' Sheriff's race is often oversimplified," Oct. 24). For example, the challenger tells voters the jail still isn't passing state inspections, without mentioning that fire-safety improvements and other upgrades needed to pass simply weren't funded by the Commissioners Court:Federal inspectors agreed earlier this year that there was still room to improve...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).