Dear Editor:

Here’s why I am voting for James Marshall for Kosciusko County Sheriff.  

During my 4 years at the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, I have had many conversations with James about JCAP and know he fully supports the program. But more than that, he is regularly in the jail, he sees how hard our jailers work and supports them. He understands that our jailers do wear body cameras that are engaged at the first sight of trouble and that our jail is monitored by hundreds of cameras 24/7. He also understands that drug dogs are already part of the department and that spending additional money on a dog would be frivolous. He also understands that drug dogs are not permitted to detect drugs on people, and that would open the county up to a slew of lawsuits.

James Marshall also understands that taking inmates to an animal shelter is a very nice thought in theory, but when you really look at the details there are too many flaws to make it safe. We don’t have the staff to supervise 10-12 inmates. It’s also too easy for someone to drop off contraband and have an inmate pick it up, not to mention the facility already holds narcotics. AWL regularly deals with dog bites which again puts the county at risk for lawsuits.  

Jim Smith should know these things, but since I have never seen him in the jail in the entire 4 years I’ve worked there, maybe he doesn’t. He talked about wanting the inmates to do service work, but we have done hundreds of hours of service work inside the jail he claims is in complete disrepair-again, I personally have never seen him in the jail. He wants to para-militarize JCAP, but clearly, he doesn’t know anything about helping people who struggle, because tearing them down is counterproductive to recovery to say the least. He knows it doesn’t make sense to purchase an expensive dog that can only have one handler taking the dog out of commission for 3 out of 4 shifts each week. 

I am just a civilian but I have a pretty good vantage point to see that Jim Smith is pandering to the public for votes. To me, that is not honest, it speaks volumes about his integrity and makes me question his leadership qualities. Will he be honest with the community? Or will he stick with the talking points and only say what he believes the public wants to hear? 

Please vote for the person NOT the party this Nov. 8th.

Courtney Jenkins
Warsaw