Friday, December 28, 2007
- We have a federal form of government;
- Judges are supposed to interpret laws rather than enact laws;
- Appellate Court Judges rule only on the issues presented to them by the parties as opposed to issues that the general public may consider to be of paramount importance; and,
- Congress lacks the power to remove State Court Judges.
No doubt that there are problems with both the Judiciary and our Judicial System. However, based upon a review of the comments in The Post and Courier, the fact that these five Justices upheld their sworn duty rather than engaging in Judicial Activism has offended the general public and would cost them their jobs if they had to run in a general election. That possibility does not make us want to climb on board the popular election of Judges bandwagon.
Monday, December 24, 2007
*See, for example, our posts at http://parentsrights.blogspot.com/2007/07/south-carolina-child-non-support.html, http://parentsrights.blogspot.com/2006/12/south-carolina-dss-chief-resigns-from.html, http://parentsrights.blogspot.com/2005/05/some-suggestions-for-reform-we-have_09.html, http://parentsrights.blogspot.com/2007/04/aclu-of-sc-urges-sc-supreme-court-to.html, http://parentsrights.blogspot.com/2007/06/s_06.html, and http://parentsrights.blogspot.com/2007/03/child-support-and-debtors-prison-from.html.
Labels: Child Support, Family Court Reform
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Among the preliminary findings made by the independent auditors hired by council are:
Those who wish to access the Audit documents on-line can click:
It is shameful that Sheriff Nash chose to spend the "Prisoner Recreation Funds" to benefit himself and his political and philosophical allies rather than the prisoners. For example, the documents now available to the public indicate that he has increased the salaries of his two "Chaplains" and that he is now paying them collectively Four Thousand Six Hundred and 00/100 ($4600.00) per month. This position is (quite competently) filled by volunteers in Charleston County, so there was no need to raid the Prisoner Recreation Fund to pay these men. And sadly, had almost Two Hundred Thousand and 00/100 ($200,000.00) Dollars not been lost or squandered, the children of the Dorchester County prisoners could have been provided for without having to seek charity from local churches.
Sheriff Nash should be required to tell all the children of the Dorchester County inmates that he has been extorting their parents on the Toll Phone charges and that what was neither stolen nor sent to his private business was used to party down with his friends and supporters. Merry Christmas kids. Ho, ho, ho.
Turning to a related issue, we hope that the Audit will be expanded to determine who benefited from the Seventy-Five Thousand (75,000) hours of "voluntary" labor that is provided each year by Dorchester County inmates. Maybe, if the "Prisoner Recreation Fund" was used to compensate these men rather than for entertaining "foreign dignitaries" they could make some inroads on their fines, their past due child support obligations, and their restitution obligations.
Finally, and also on a related issue, we note that many of the comments to the articles in The Post and Courier are insightful. For example, we have pasted comments from "Slayer" and Lillycollette hereinbelow.
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http://web.charleston.net/news/2007/dec/20/sheriffs_office_audit_outlined25484/#comments
Posted by Slayer on December 20, 2007 at 10:55 p.m.
Final continuation
12. What percentage of time does Nash spend at his Dojo? (That’s his martial arts business in the Oakbrook area of Summerville) Just how many businesses does he operate?
13. Nash has told the media that his department does not pay for the character training he mandates for all of his officers to attend. I direct you to look at the document posted on the Post and Courier’s web site. Did this man of ‘character’ lie to us? That’s the way I read it.
14. Another thing, the Sheriff’s department pays two chaplins, who make more money that a deputy does. While I do not object to having a chapin (this is usually a volunteered position) why are they paid more than the person who puts his life in danger, and why are they given a county car to drive? Again, I would like to know the answer to this.
If you really want to get your blood boiling as to the mismanagement of money by our Sheriff of Character, read the audit documents. The bottom line is that he was at the helm and allowed this mismanagement and theft to occur on his watch. Don’t blame anyone else, Sheriff. The buck stops with you.
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When they're through -- Delving for Dollars -- in Dorchester County "maybe" (lol) someone will take that auditing magnifying glass to the Charleston County family court. There's a serious big-time need for a federal forensic audit there too.
Labels: Audit
Thursday, December 20, 2007
We are not surprised that the audit of the Dorchester County Sheriff's' Office is discovering problems. Nor are we surprised that the Sheriff has been making a killing off of the telephone charges assessed against the inmates. We called attention to this practice over two years ago.
Labels: Audit
Saturday, December 15, 2007
This article was published in The Valdosta Daily Times on April 16, 2006. Quite frankly, we missed it. We are posting it now because we think the situation in Clinch County Georgia mirrors the situation in Dorchester County South Carolina.
Granted, the cases are not identical. However, both cases involved the assessment of fees by the County Sheriff against "pre-trial detainees" in the absence of specific statutes authorizing the assessment. However, in the case of Clinch County, the funds apparently went into the county's general budget, whereas, in the case of Dorchester County, whatever monies were not embezzled by the Chief Jailer were apparently used primarily for entertaining the Sheriff's friends, supporters, employees, and volunteers.
Dorchester County Sheriff Ray Nash is now taking a beating in the Summerville Journal Scene. And, in our opinion, he deserves to take that beating. For years, we questioned the practice of, among other things, charging inmates such outlandish toll rates for the use of the telephone, particularly when the calls were local in nature. Moreover, we have always considered this to be a slush fund which should have been used for the benefit of the prisoners rather than to pay the salaries of the Sheriff's political allies. But now we learn that not only has Sheriff Nash failed to keep track of the proceeds of an illegal booking fee, but that he has not been keeping track of the telephone toll charge account either; this is despite the fact that that particular account is both known to and monitored by the County Auditor. On this last point, the following was published in the Summerville Journal Scene:
In his summary, which was obtained by The Journal Scene under a Freedom of Information Act request, Wise states that between Oct. 15, 2003 and Sept. 27 of this year, only 37 of the 51 checks issued to the jail by phone system provider Pay Tel were received by the county treasurer's office. After checking with her staff Wednesday, treasurer Mary Pearson said Pastor brought most of the Pay Tel checks to her office himself but did on occasion send someone else from the sheriff's office.Wise alleges that in the first nine months of 2007 alone, Pay Tel checks totaling more than $18,000 were deposited into the jail account Pastor set up with Bank of America.
Any one who cares to read the three most recent Summerville Journal Scene articles about this matter can click the following links:
