In regards to this October 2023 post from Democracy Docket about the non-necessity of elected sheriffs, I looked up which states abolished the role of sheriff. Turns out that there are few, but notable, examples:
- Only Alaska and Connecticut lack an office of sheriff
- Alaska does not have county governments.
- Connecticut voters moved to abolish the office of sheriff in 2000, replacing the elected office with both state marshals and judicial marshals, which are both non-elected contractors.
But also, who runs the jails if not a sheriff?
- Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont all have direct state administration of pretrial detention through a State Department of Corrections.
- Connecticut’s legislature voted in 1968 to create a Department of Corrections and place all pretrial and post-conviction detention facilities under unified state control.
- The Connecticut legislature previously voted to abolish county governments in 1959, eventually replacing them with non-elected regional councils of government, which are controlled by municipal governments and operate for regional planning purposes only.
- The Connecticut Attorney General, who is elected by the legislature in joint session, is only responsible for civil cases, while the Division of Criminal Justice, led by the Chief State’s Attorney, is responsible for criminal cases.
- State’s attorneys in Connecticut (equivalent to district attorneys in other states) are appointed to each circuit by a state commission.
Connecticut seems to be far ahead of most states on the question of the relevance of sheriffs, as well as the role of counties, to modern-day government and corrections. This also eliminates the nonsense of “constitutional sheriffs”, and the corruption and feudalism inherent to the office itself.
Imagine such abolition taking place in larger states. How much efficiency would this allow to state government when it comes to zoning, housing, infrastructure, and more?
