University of Virginia Library

will benefit all citizens of
Albemarle County. I make this
statement because I think we
will have fewer people
returning to the jail if we have
the rehabilitation program.

George W. Bailey
Sheriff, Albemarle County
(Mr. Bailey: The article
referred to the cost per inmate
per meal at 22 cents. Based upon
your three-meal per day figure
of $1.25, you spend 42 cents per
meal per inmate. Mr. Wayne
Shannon, Director of OAR, has
promised to supply us with an
estimated meal allowance
based upon information you
supply him in the next week.
Our information was based on
an OAR calculation which was
made without benefit of the
statistical information on the
annual number of prisoners
and the duration of their stay
which the city provided, but
the county did not.

Your claim that our
reporters write "distorted"
articles and should therefore
not be allowed access to the
county jail and to complete
information is a classic
example of backwards logic. If
information is made available
by authorities before the
articles are printed, journalists
would not be forced to resort
to other sources for their only
description of prison
conditions.

If there was any
"distortion" in the articles,
you have your own reticence
and refusal to allow our
reporter into the jail to
blame. Our reporter came to
you in an effort to get the
most complete account
possible, so that the facts
would speak for themselves.
Nothing which she wrote was
any more or less than on
accurate account of
information she was able to
gather from all the
sources Ed.)