Update: Columbus releases sheriff’s audit after candidate’s lawsuit. What does it say?
The Columbus Consolidated Government released the findings of a transitional audit of the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office four days after a mayoral candidate filed a lawsuit seeking its release.
However, Mayor Skip Henderson told the Ledger-Enquirer that the audit was not finished when John Anker filed his legal action. As a result, it could not be released.
“We received Mr. Anker’s lawsuit. It is baseless,” Henderson said in a statement. “The city does not produce copies of documents related to audits that are still in progress because such piecemeal production would interfere with the audit process and those documents are not public records.”
What does the audit say?
The audit disputes the timeline established by Anker in his lawsuit.
Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman requested the audit in November 2020 following his election and the end of the county marshal’s office. The Columbus Council approved the audit in January 2021, and the audit began in late April 2021.
The report listed several issues that may not have been addressed by previous administrations that now pose risks. Property conditions at the jail bureau could pose a risk to employees and inmates. The auditor cited “building system failure experiences in recent months” caused by deferred maintenance.
Capacity is becoming an issue. Inmates have had longer stays at the jail since the summer of 2018, pushing the average inmate count to 950 per day. Delays in judicial processing because of the 2018 flooding of the Government Center and the COVID-19 pandemic in the last couple of years contributed to those longer jail stays.
The jail is also “critically understaffed,” according to the report. However, the audit notes that the sheriff’s department maintained “exceptional” records of its inmates, despite the shortage.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 7:34 PM.