Representatives of Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson are meeting with Escambia County Administrator Jack Brown at 1 p.m. today. Because of the talks, Sheriff Adkinson has suspended his deadline of June 30 to return the 260-plus Escambia County inmates that the Walton County jail currently houses.
A WCSO spokeswoman emphasized the discussion will focus on working together and coming up with viable long-term solutions. Depending on how well the talks go, Sheriff Adkinson may decide to continue to partner with Escambia County, which it has done since flooding in April 2014 led to the county’s detention center being destroyed and the death of two inmates.
I think it still would be good if the media would tell us what in the county’s briefing the Walton County Sheriff believed to be a lie. Clearly, he took exception to something that prompted his initial response. No one really believes his later story that he could not deal with the uncertainty of only having 30-day notification for termination of the agreement. Even if no one will talk, it should be possible to compare the two briefs to identify the factual points of disagreement.