Resignation letter of Nowata County, Oklahoma sheriff Terry Barnett, after a judge ordered her to reopen an unsafe jail with near-lethal carbon monoxide and exposed wiring.

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[–]i_cansmellthat 16 insightful - 2 fun16 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

This is someone worthy of an elected position. She calls out factual reasons without grandstanding and puts her own conscience before duties to her job. Sad that integrity is so rare.

[–]magnora7[S] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I agree.

[–]Farseli 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Holy hell. Sucks to lose your job but this is the kind of behavior we need to see more of. I question if that judge is of sound mind.

[–]magnora7[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

One thing we definitely don't have to question is if Terry Sue Barnett is of sound mind. She seems like the only sane one in this situation.

[–]deleted 7 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

What a trooper

[–]magnora7[S] 7 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Wow, apparently not only did she resign, but her whole department did as well: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna985366

[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

"As most of these things go, it's all about money," Barnett's attorney, Paul DeMuro, told NBC News. "The jail is a huge source of revenue for the county, so the financial piece of this story is a very important one.".

Oh, prison profits... It all makes sense.

[–]Troll 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Court systems are very corrupt. The government is primarily a mafia.

[–]Hobo 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Good for her. She didn't want the inevitable deaths on her conscience and rightfully so. I hope this opens the judge up to some harsh public criticism.

[–]magnora7[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I hope it does too, because it's much-deserved. US prisons are slowly becoming to resemble the gulag system, and I sorely wish I was exaggerating.

[–]Hobo 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I'm surprised there isn't more anger about it. Just look at how the private prisons use their inmates as a source of essentially unpaid slave labor. If you don't work for 5 cents an hour than you're often punished by having restricted access during the day.

[–]magnora7[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's a "frog in boiling water" situation, it's gotten worse so slowly that there's no one incident to cause a mass outrage. But things like the letter in the original post might come close.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/US_incarceration_timeline-clean.svg/1200px-US_incarceration_timeline-clean.svg.png

You can see how much the "Drug War" from the 1980s and Reagan caused the prison population to explode.

Another part is that private prisons are only about 5%, yet there are many public prisons that are basically for-profit in practice, but they're still called "public" prisons. No one really talks about those. That's where they're basically working them as slaves to produce products they can sell, like furniture. All furniture in public schools in iowa was made by prisoners, I've heard. They even have a website where you can shop products! https://www.unicor.gov/index.aspx

Furthermore the public prisons get paid by the gov't on a per-prisoner basis, meaning they have a huge incentive to cram as many prisoners as they can in to their prison, without building more infrastructure. So almost every prison is over-crowded.

This situation is an absolute joke. The US is currently setting the world record for number of prisoners, both in raw numbers and per-capita.

I don't know how anyone can objectively look at this and see it as acceptable.

[–]Farseli 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's the just-world phenomenon. People tend to believe that the world is just and people get what they deserve. They want to believe it is fair, because a world that isn't fair is scary.

In that mindset, poor conditions for inmates are what they deserve because if they were good people they wouldn't be in prison. It doesn't matter if what they did (if anything) actually deserves prison time. They were sent to prison so they deserve it.

Another example: for a culture that almost universally considers rape to be bad, people are more than willing to joke or make light of prison rape. Bad people go to prison, so if they experience prison rape it is okay. Good people won't ever experience that because good people never end up in prison.

[–]JasonCarswell 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Constitutionally slavery is forbidden - except in prisons.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

She should not have resigned.

As an elected official she cannot be fired.

it's a much stronger statement to get arrested for non-compliance of an illegal court order. Quitting may have made the local news.

Getting arrested as a US elected sheriff and going to jail for disobeying illegal court orders would make international headlines.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I agree, in theory that would've been even better. But in reality she might know that would get her killed or something, who knows. The culture around these types of organizations can be extremely questionable sometimes. A human life doesn't have a lot of value when your job is literally trafficking humans like cattle in to concrete cages. Removing sticking cog in the machine might not be out of the question.

I'm not saying it's 100% definitely like that, but I can maybe understand why she did what she did. It was still quite brave.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's unlikely that an internationally recognized recently-arrested protesting elected sheriff would be assassinated.

It's also impossible to know the exact circumstances. We'll never know what could have happened.

Is a safe bet to assume that that prison will house prisoners shortly, and for years to come.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It's unlikely that an internationally recognized recently-arrested protesting elected sheriff would be assassinated.

Seeing the reaction a mere resignation letter has caused, I wouldn't be so sure. But you're probably right.

Also maybe more importantly, they can just fire her immediately the literal instant she resists at all. There's no rights to employment lasting, it can be cut off immediately at any time for basically any reason. So by resigning it makes a bigger splash instead of being fired and then writing a letter about it.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

She's a sheriff. An elected official.

IIRC She cannot be fired by anyone; except by coroners in certain countys (for murder, etc.).

Sheriff's are unique elected positions in the US. Even a state's governor cannot give orders to a county sheriff. They are literally at the top tier of their command chain.

[–]Troll 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Let me know when you would've done that in her shoes.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'll never go back to being a goon for the state.

Cause I'd never be a cop.
So, I'd never be elected as a sheriff.

She was elected. Who do you think would have arrested the sheriff to take hey to jail??? That's a big problem for the courts, as the cops are the supposed enforcers.

Who do you think the cops would've sided with??? Especially, given she refused to open the jail for their safety, and others.

Instead she resigned which cedes power to someone who want elected, and will probably take illegal orders from the judge.
Now she has no formal power; and the corporatist courts are in complete control.

[–]gjjemhunter 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

If this is true, this Judge should be reported to the State supreme Court for review. If the Court does nothing, the people should protest the authority of this judge.