Hard Time

Another article from the Fort Worth Weekly about conditions at the Johnson County Jail, the Sheriff's Department and the Cleburne Police Department. This one is considerably more coherent than the last one, but it goes out of its way to insulate Sheriff Bob Alford from any responsibility for conditions at the jail that he is, well, responsible for. Though it must be admitted that if the County can't persuade qualified applicants to work as jailers for a third what they'd make in the Metroplex, that's ultimately the fault of the Commissioner's Court and the County Judge. The article also does a vicious hatchet job on Cleburne Police Chief Terry Powell on flimsy evidence and innuendo, while lionizing Burleson Chief Tom Cowan, for no apparent reason other than Cowan agreed to talk to the writer. I could also have done without Don Rice's opinion on local attorneys. Let him try a first degree felony before a Johnson County jury and then maybe I'll be interested in what he has to say.