Elected jailer in Ky. stops sending inmates to do work in districts that he didn't carry

As what some of us call Decoration Day approaches, here's a new twist on local political patronage, from Anders Eld of the Harlan Daily Enterprise in southeastern Kentucky: "With Memorial Day 10 days away, the grass remains high in a lot of cemeteries around the county. (Photo of unnamed, mowed cemetery in the region by Barbara Turner) In recent years the cutting has been done by jail inmates through the work-release program, but something has changed this year."

Myrtle Turner blew the whistle on Jailer Curt Stallard at a meeting of the Fiscal Court, the county's legislative body: “He made the remark to me that he would not send them to mow grass or pick up garbage. All because he lost the vote in our area,” the Big Laurel community on the north side of Pine Mountain. A member of the Fiscal Court said he had heard likewise.

Stallard confirmed the account. He first told Eld, “I’m just cutting what I can. I don’t have as many prisoners as in the past,” but when asked why certain areas of the county are getting left out, he replied, “Because I want to do it that way. And I do believe I lost those districts, and I have said that to some that have called.” (Read more)