Leadership XVI: Sheriff's Office Day

By Jeff Roslow, Class Historian



     Being in the newspaper business, I felt there was a lot on this tour I would already know. That wasn't true. For instance, the cafe staff makes meals daily for more than 3,000 people, which includes inmates, staff and others. The manager pointed out that it pays an average of 68 cents per meal, and we were served a piece of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans.
     To me the most impressive place we saw was the emergency operations center, the home of 911. It looked as if there were up to 25 desks with three large computer screens on each throughout the room. The auditorium was huge. On the front wall there were multiple screens showing different news channels, weather displays, and intersections in Polk County. I was expecting a Tic-Tac-Toe board to come on the screen and ask me if I wanted to play a game.
     We toured the women's facility at the Bartow jail. Appearing somewhat similar to what many have seen in movies, there was one difference: windows instead of bars. No one appeared to be put off about a group of 30 people wearing green staring at them. That wasn't necessarily true when we toured the booking area in Bartow that took us past the holding cell.
     Inside there were about 30 men - either waiting for transfer, waiting for trial or whatever else someone gets put in there for. As soon as we gathered outside the glassed-in room, about six or seven men pressed themselves against the glass and one could see in their eyes they weren't looking at me. I would have thought they'd seen women not nearly as long ago as it appeared.
     One of our class members asked during this time what inmates eat if they go into the public to work. Many come from the Bartow facility as most of these inmates are trusties. We were shown a sandwich the staff makes for them, actually two sandwiches wrapped in plastic. It was either soy pork or soy chicken sandwiches or something like that. For drinks they are on their own. However, when the sandwich came out, the men in the holding cell switched their attention from women to food, eyeballing it like it was past lunchtime.
     Then, there is the underground walkway. I think most of us have heard about it, but probably very few ever experienced it. All the way downstairs is a hallway where suspects go from the booking area to the holding cells, which is in the basement of the courthouse. This, we were told, saves lots of money and possible escape problems as well as transportation costs, as inmates can appear in court by taking an elevator upstairs.
     By the way, getting arrested can cost you. Suspects are charged for booking, toilet items, transportation and more. Their money is taken during booking and put in an account.
     At the end of the day we situated ourselves in a meeting room at the southwest office. The highlight (for many in the group) was a visit from Grady Judd. Fresh from a press conference, we got the rundown about the case from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which accused the Sheriff’s office of mistreating juveniles. The case was thrown out.
Sheriff Judd issued certificates to each member of the class and all had a picture taken with our Sheriff.
     “I'm not doing this because I'm always running for re-election,” Judd said. “I just thought everyone would like a picture with me.”
     “I’m putting mine on the visor of my car, it might come in handy,” a class member said, grinning.
     “Go ahead,” Grady mildly replied, “if you use that you might get TWO tickets.