Missouri Town releases inmates because it has no money to feed them

Five people that were being held on misdemeanor charges were released from custody after the jail didn't have the money to feed them.  This just goes to show you the declining state of the corrections, jails, and prisons systems.  The budget constraints on jails are so tight they are releasing people because they can't afford to pay them.  It is so politically correct to be tough on crime, yet, no one thinks about the enormous cost of locking all these people up.

Here is the article in the Kansas City Star.

NE Missouri Town releases inmates if can't feed

AP-

WELLSTON, Mo. — The police chief of a St. Louis suburb released all the city jail's inmates because his department didn't have the money to feed them.  Wellston Police Chief G. Thomas Walker said he released five people being held on misdemeanors on Wednesday. He says the city isn't providing money for inmates' meals and officers who were buying food for the inmates have not been reimbursed.

Walker says he has no control over the police budget, and claimed Mayor Linda Whitfield is interfering with his department's operations.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Walker says misdemeanor prisoners who don't post bail quickly might have to be released. Those held on felonies will go to the county jail.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/26/4368840/ne-missouri-town-releases-inmates.html#storylink=cpy