The Alabama legislature could bring an end to the controversial practice of county sheriffs pocketing unused state jail food money when it meets next year.

State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said he plans to sponsor a bill during the 2019 legislative session to curb the longstanding practice.

“I’m ready. I’m committed to filing it,” Orr said. “The state of Alabama can do better. This system has far outlived its usefulness. It’s the 21st century and we need to move forward with a practical and efficient model for feeding prisoners in local jails.”

Robert Timmons, executive director of the Alabama Sheriffs Association, said he supports the proposed law and that he believes “every sheriff should be 100 percent behind it.”

The text of the draft bill has not yet been released, as Orr is still working with lawyers and advocates to finalize the language.

Frank Knaack, executive director of the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, is helping Orr craft the legislation. Knaack said the bill is aimed chiefly at ensuring that sheriffs can no longer claim that a Depression-era law allows them to pocket “leftover” state funds allocated to feed inmates in the county jails they oversee.

“Sheriffs have basically insinuated that there’s ambiguity in the law and that they can keep leftover jail food money, despite what we think is already clearly defined law,” Knaack said. “We want the legislature to once and for all make clear the fact that money earmarked for jail food is spent on food and that it’s not the personal property of sheriffs.”

Orr said the legislation, as it is currently written, would also raise the $1.75 daily rate the state currently pays to feed inmates to $2 per day, which would then increase by 1.5 percent each year to account for inflation. He estimated the initial 25-cent increase to the daily rate would add $1.2 million to the approximately $8.9 million per year the state currently pays to feed inmates it houses in county jails.

Orr said his bill would create a capped “cost overrun fund” that would allow sheriffs to petition for more state money if circumstances - for example, having to replace expensive appliances - cause them to spend more jail food money than they receive in a given year.

He said he hopes that the legislation will go a step further and create a framework for taking the responsibility for feeding inmates away from sheriffs, but that it is not clear whether the final version will include such provisions.

“The best solution for all concerned, as far as I consider it, is that we have a statewide bill where sheriffs’ salaries will be adjusted at the local level but they would not be personally liable for feeding the inmates,” Orr said. “[County] commissioners don’t want the responsibility either. So we are trying to thread the needle with this bill and I think we have a decent piece of legislation to file and work through the legislative process this coming session.”

Alabama sheriffs profiting from their inmate-feeding operations has become a hot-button issue in recent years.

The controversy became a national story after a March report by AL.com revealed that Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin personally pocketed more than $750,000 worth of public jail food funds between 2015 and 2017 and bought a beach house in Orange Beach for $740,000 last year.

Another high-profile story has also driven public outrage over the practice of sheriffs keeping jail food funds. In 2015, Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin personally took $160,000 worth of the money, then proceeded to loan $150,000 to a car dealership that declared bankruptcy the following year.

In August, Gov. Kay Ivey took a step aimed at stopping sheriffs from keeping state jail food funds by requiring them to sign affidavits stating that they take an “oath” only to spend the money on “food for prisoners in the county jail.”

Knaack called the move a “a huge step forward,” but said he and Orr are concerned that “it doesn’t permanently fix the issue,” as it could be rolled back under a future governor.

Orr said he believes his bill will have wide support in the legislature, where previous efforts to reform the jail food system have not been successful.

Sen. Judiciary Committee Chairman Cam Ward said he supports legislation to end the practice of sheriffs pocketing unused jail food funds.

“I’m totally supportive of reforming that system. I think the momentum is there, in light of what we saw in Etowah and Morgan counties,” the Alabaster Republican said.

“It’s an outdated process that needs to be fixed. We shouldn’t do it that way anymore, we know that.”

Timmons said he urges state legislators to vote for Orr’s proposed legislation and that he plans to do everything he can to ensure it gets passed.

“It’s just an antiquated law. Putting food allowance money in your pocket is just not good business,” he said. “I’m going to push that every sheriff support the bill.”