The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-09-25
(NUMBER FOUR.
THE SHERIFF WASHES THE
PRISONERS HE BUYS FAN
CY NOTE PAPER, &c!

- illegal taxing of fees on writs on service
ls done by county-paid Bailiffs, and by extol
ton and speculation on Insane patients, ha
swelled up his ill gotten gains and taxatio
of fees to more than t1go thousand dollars Z
one gear. 1t required experience, shreWd
ness, and bare-faced extortion to do it. w
! will show now how his fertile and Greatly
n mind has invented new methods of extort
, ing or hoodwinking unlawful allowance
from the Board of County Commissioners
= THE SHERIFF WASHES THE PRISON
ERS.
BY law the Sheriff is made the custodian
of the County Prison. 1t is his duty tt
, guard, care for, and board the persons who
are committed to Jail to be tried or fill out
their term of Imprisonment. By reference
to sec. 5, page 1O5, Acts 1855, his fees
for this service are fixed. For committing
/ prisoner he is allowed fifty cents, and for
discharging, forty cents Boarding each
prisoner per day, so cents" but when a
dwelling room is provided " he shall not be
allowed exceeding forty cents per day for
boarding each prisoner" These are the
charges he may legally make, and all be-
yond that for committing, discharging, and
boarding is illegal, unwarranted by law,
aud the County Commissioners have no au-
thority to grant it. We find that during
the past year. we have in almost all of his
! items of charges for keeping prisoners,
! charge for acashing
COST OF KEEPING PRISONERS
| CLEAN.
At the December Term of the County
Board, the Sheriff presented his bill for
prisoners, and in it were charges fora0ashing,
amounting to trceRty-t0o dollars and si1ty
cents, which charges were allowed by the
Board.
At the March Term, the Sheriff presented
his bill for prisoners, and in it were charges
for s0ashing, amounting to thirty.tf dollars
and thirty cents, which were allowed by the
Board.
At the June Term, the aeashing bills all
lowed by the Board amounted, in part, to
t,oenty-one dollars and fifteen cents. There
which we did not see, not being in
the regular files, which would doubtless in
crease the amount. rse Is !
At the present September Term the Sher-
if filed his bill for prisoners, containing |
charges for aodshtng amounting to forty |
seven dolLrrs and t,oeny cents, allowed by |
the Board
Thus we find the Sheriff allowed for one |
year washing bill for prisoners, amount
ing to the SUM of ONE HUNDRED |
AND TWENTY-SIX DOLLARS AND !
TWENTY FIVE CENTS. r r:-
Is 1T WARRANTED BY LAW2
Most certainly not When the law says |
what fees the Sheriff shall receive for GER
tain services, it does not require profound |
iurist to understand that it contemplates no
other fees for those servi ices. The Office is
created by the Law, and must be regulated |
by the Law. 1t authorizes the Commission
ers to pay him forty cents per day for |
boarding the prisoners, and nothing more.
The Law never was understood to allow pay |
for extra services rendered to the Sheriff; it |
was not SO intended to be construed; and it |
was only our model Sheriff who could invent |
such a charge, and only blind or ignorant |
Commissioners would allow it. The conn
ty has, at large outlay, furnished the Sher-
if commodious and comfortable residence, |
ard has supplied the Jail with everything !
necessary to accommodate the prisoners |
i a. go1I fha bar
dollars and eighty cents per week for board /
ing each prisoner. and yet he is not satis-
fed, and he must invent an additional charge |
which the law does not warrant. We claim |
that two dollars and eighty cents is a mon
ey-making price for the Sheriff for feeding !
men on Iail fare-a large compensation
There are scores and hundreds of men in |
this county, who ara living on the good
things of the land, getting not only their
eating, bat their washing, sleeping apart
ments, and all the conveniences of life, at a
lower price than that Notwithstanding he
has received from the county for keeping
the prisoners more than Fifteen Hundred
| DoL5ars, he is not content until he dupes
the Commissioners into allowing him fer
one charge alone the sum of ONE HUN
DRED AND TWENTY-SIX DOLLARS
tcithout the least legal ,carrant therefor.
But this is not the only instance in which
our adroit Sheriff has managed to draw
money from the County Treasury, without
warrant of law, by deceiving or duping the
Commissioners He evidently holds the
Sheriffs Office, not for the honor only, but
to make money ont of it, and the following
shows his shrewd 6nancering to save ex-
penditure and his -
CABBAGE EXTRAORDINARY. -
By sec. 80, page ia, Acts 1855, it is
made the duty of the Commissioners to