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Get out of Jailing, with Pay

In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the office of county jailer is created by the state constitution — but jails are optional. So in 41 counties across the state, the people elect jailers to run no jails. Roughly one in three of the jailless jailers collects a salary of at least $40,000; some employ relatives as deputies. Some days, the jailers have nothing to do; sometimes they take people to jails run by other authorities. While waiting for those calls, some do other jobs: one works eight-hour days as a school custodian (for about half what he’s paid as jailer); another farms and drives a school bus. Reporters dropped by one $69,000-a-year jailer’s home on a weekday and found the official (who has no office) barefoot and babysitting. (AC/Louisville Courier-Journal) ...If she had to take someone to jail, would the kid come with her?
Original Publication Date: 11 January 2015
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 21.

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