Fulton County sheriff: Jackson is well-qualified
October 16, 2008 at 3:15 pm by Scott Henry in News, The BlotterSee our complete — and constantly updated — Voter’s Guide here.
Historically, the Fulton County sheriff’s race is won in the Democratic primary, with the general election a mere footnote. There’s little reason to think that won’t also be the case this year.
Democratic nominee Theodore Jackson, a retired career FBI agent and former interim sheriff, is both qualified and capable of running the troubled department with a professionalism and effectiveness that was beyond the reach of soon-to-be-ex-Sheriff Myron Freeman.
Jackson’s opponent, Republican Michael Rary, also has a strong resume; as Fulton’s former chief marshal, Rary headed a department that provided security to the county’s lower courts and served magistrate warrants.
Neither man has much experience running a jail, but Rary’s proposal to privatize the Fulton facility doesn’t sound prudent. Since the jail is under a federal consent decree, we question whether such an action is even possible; even so, the idea may offer a clue to Rary’s judgment.
Republicans love to hand government functions over to private firms, but to contract out the treatment of prisoners in the county’s care seems to represent a lapse in accountability. The next sheriff certainly needs to hire a professional jailer to put an end to the overcrowding and illegal holding of prisoners that have plagued the jail in recent years, but the responsibility for overseeing jail operations should rest with an elected sheriff, not a private contractor.
Either candidate would be an improvement over the clueless Freeman, but we have more confidence in Jackson.
Come back to FreshLoaf or to the CL 2008 Voter’s Guide on Oct. 21 for a convenient voters’ checklist to help at the polls.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Once again you bed-wetters at the Loaf are escaping logic. In one breath you admit that our government has done the most rotten butcher job possible with Fulton County jails (see Nichols). Then in the next breath, you claim that a private agency couldn’t do the job right (at the same time that you utter a professional needs to be hired).
Nice job comrade.