Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Jail Commissary

Since I mentioned jail commissary on the last post, I thought I would devote a whole post to jail commissary. I am curious to gather as many stories as possible about ludicrous commissary charges, events, etc. Also, I am curious about what types of items are on the commissary lists of various jails.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should look at this topic. It is very interesting. I read a recent request for an AG opinion from a county in which the Sheriff was refusing to allow the county to audit that account. I tried to find it again for you, but I could not locate it. There is plenty of room for this to become a private perk.

editor said...

I found this from 1991, so there may be newer opinions and laws
Opinion No. DM-67:
The county commissioners court may not interfere with the sheriff's exercise of discretion in contracting for the operation of a jail commissary under section 351.0415 of the Local Government Code. Any funds the sheriff receives that are attributable to the operation of the commissary are to be used for the benefit of inmates in accordance with section 351.0415. The county auditor is authorized to review commissary accounts, even if the accounts are maintained by the operator of the commissary.