Alabama Sheriff Says If You Litter, He Wants You Sentenced To Pick Up Trash For 40 Hours

July 28, 2021

The sheriff of Escambia County, Alabama, says if you are caught littering on a public road in his county, he’ll ask the judge to sentence you to pick up roadside trash.

Sheriff Heath Jackson asked, “How hard is it to use a trash can?”

His comments came Tuesday after eight inmates picked up a full trailer load of trash on county roads in just eight hours (pictured).

“We should be ashamed of ourselves,” Jackson said. “If we catch you throwing trash out of your window, I will be asking the judge to assign you to an inmate crew for 40 hours of community service to see how you like it. We are better than this!”

Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

32 Responses to “Alabama Sheriff Says If You Litter, He Wants You Sentenced To Pick Up Trash For 40 Hours”

  1. MYRNA Lane on August 1st, 2021 5:17 am

    I am one of the women who picks trash from Grocery Outlet to Brulah Rd
    Via Mobime Highway. I slso.pick Klondike, 8 Mile Creek Rd, Millview and
    Beulah Rd and Wild Lake. I know that there are no excuses for trash. But I continue to pick. I agree that something needs to be done. I know that there are many people out there picking thst don’t talk about it. Thesrspeople are my heroes@,

  2. Niknak50 on July 31st, 2021 3:59 pm

    Re M in Bratt, you had a very smart professor. Excellent observation.

  3. JD on July 30th, 2021 4:59 pm

    Good job sheriff. Now down here in Escambia county FL along mobile hwy in Beulah the ecua garbage and other dumpster trucks have trash blowing off everywhere. No one ever picks it up from these companies. So as long as they are penalized too I say bring this action to us folks here in the Florida version of Escambia county

  4. Justme on July 30th, 2021 8:18 am

    I totally agree … I live on a small beach park and the trash folks leave is disgusting..soiled baby diapers to needles to used condoms — stuff that should never be seen. It truly amazes me how nasty the sewer slime who does this actually is. Many of these folks are younger and have no respect for themselves or others

  5. RANDY on July 30th, 2021 7:34 am

    I pick up about a garbage bag full every week on hwy 196. Half is from people driving the other half is from ECUA garbage trucks that dont have a top on them, and it flies out as they drive down the road.

  6. biscuit on July 29th, 2021 10:59 pm

    2 things you can’t fix……stupid, & sorry…….

  7. LA on July 29th, 2021 12:32 pm

    Escambia County Fl. could use this also. Littering should also include road side signs promoting businesses. Since when should a business have the right to use county property to advertise. I have called Commissioner Steve Berry’s office but his representative gave me the run around about how this was basically impossible. Seems all of the signs have telephone numbers on them so finding the culprits should be easy.

  8. William 2 on July 29th, 2021 10:31 am

    Wow!!!! There’s some awful lenient folks commenting on here!!! Personally, I think litter laws don’t have enough teeth, it’s time for these people to pay a real price for destroying the environment. 1st offense should carry a $1,000 fine and 1000 hours of community service.
    2nd offense should carry a $10,000 fine and 1year in jail .
    3rd and subsequent offenses should carry $100,000 fine and 5 years in prison, adding 2 years prison time to each subsequent charge.

    Maybe people will think twice when they face real consequences, killing the environment is akin to killing people, since peopledependupona cleanenvironmentto thrive!!!

  9. Paul on July 29th, 2021 9:41 am

    Take them to Fannie Rd I pick up trash every day out by the Rd its horrible.

  10. Nope on July 29th, 2021 9:18 am

    “We” should be ashamed of “ourselves”?

    Nope. I’m not. I don’t litter, so I’m not. Y’all can all be ashamed of you want.

  11. gm on July 29th, 2021 7:48 am

    This would be great. I live on Highway 97 and I pick up 1-2 plastic bags full of garbage every week where I cut grass In front of my house. A couple of months ago, I had 30 plus hospital pads (used), also rubber gloves and syringes thrown out. These were not out of a large plastic bag, as there were no bags, just the individual items up and down both sides of the highway. I have also had people throw fast food items out while I am cutting grass in my front yard!@

  12. Bewildered on July 29th, 2021 7:23 am

    Great idea. How come our legal system ignores what the people feel is right. I think the same should apply to vandalism. Don’t let the parents jump in and bail out their sweet offspring to clean up and repair what they trashed. Let the juveniles scrape and paint and work for a change

  13. M in Bratt on July 29th, 2021 7:08 am

    I once had a college professor that believed that there is a direct co relationship between the morality of a neighborhood, and the amount of litter on the ground. The lower the morals, the higher the garbage pile. Would anybody care to argue that point.

  14. Leonard Lett on July 29th, 2021 3:51 am

    @ Paul

    I totally agree about littering including cigarette butts. I get so tired of seeing people toss cigarette butts out their window and nothing being done about it. This is just as much littering as tossing out a candy wrapper. The filter on a cigarette can take years to break down and it is unsanitary. I believe smokers should be fined heavily for tossing their cigarette butts out the window of their vehicles. Maybe a steep fine or two might cause them to quit smoking all together. Sheriff Jackson has a great idea about how to deal with litterbugs.

  15. Paul on July 29th, 2021 12:07 am

    It isn’t too often that there’s a topic where everybody agrees on.
    This should be standard for everywhere..

  16. Mark on July 28th, 2021 9:19 pm

    Best idea I’ve ever heard.

  17. MR REALITY on July 28th, 2021 8:01 pm

    and let me tell ya…guess who will NEVER EVER EVER EVER LITTER on out roads again……

  18. David Donaldson on July 28th, 2021 7:52 pm

    Great idea. Bring it to Escamia County, Florida please!!!

  19. No Excuses on July 28th, 2021 3:26 pm

    Great idea! Do it in Florida too. Highway 29 is terrible!

  20. EMD on July 28th, 2021 1:12 pm

    Great idea.

  21. car lsylvia Godwin on July 28th, 2021 12:26 pm

    I love that idea. If they had to pick up trash they would probably quit throwing it out. I wish we had that here in our little town.

  22. Freda Whaley on July 28th, 2021 10:01 am

    Great idea. I say give them even more days to work.

  23. Mike J. on July 28th, 2021 8:38 am

    YES! I like that idea. Please do it here in Escambia Florida. I am always picking up trash in my front yard from stupid jerks who throw out their stuff as they are driving past because they are too lazy to wait for their own house and their own garbage can. They know it’s wrong to throw out trash from their car but they do it anyway because they don’t care about where that garbage goes. Let them pay the penalty!

  24. DTellUs on July 28th, 2021 7:38 am

    Agree 100% Sheriff!!! EVERYDAY I pick up trash out of my yard & street from Littering People! Some people think the 4 way stop by my house is the dumping ground, I have watched them toss THEIR TRASH OUT of THEIR window’s!!!! It’s a DISGRACE & ASHAME! RUDE!!!!!!

  25. Paul on July 28th, 2021 7:37 am

    I agree with this. All the way down to a cigarette butt. Some cases should be harsher.

  26. David on July 28th, 2021 6:26 am

    If you think its bad in Escambia County come look at Conecuh County. The whole county is a dump.

  27. CW on July 28th, 2021 5:20 am

    It’s pretty bad. I pick up fast food bags and beer bottles all the time in my yard. People also put trash on the back of their pickups and it blows off all over the place.

  28. concerned on July 28th, 2021 4:27 am

    thank you for speaking up and sounds like a good plan to me as someone who has seen at 1st hand folks who toss it at you as your cleaning it up. I’ve kept my street clean and picked up for over 60 years and as the older generation passed on the younger ones will be pointing fingers at each other. the problem is they just don’t care have no respect . I hope they impose a $50 fine to go with that. if they get tossed.behind them bars for 2 days it’s a wakeup call and that also helps and gives them time to think about what they have done.

  29. Dusty on July 28th, 2021 4:16 am

    Absolutely!!!

  30. cdpjr on July 28th, 2021 4:10 am

    Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!
    I had to call a cab company to MAKE their driver pick up trash he threw out by my house after I confronted him about it and he refused to pick it up. I get sick of people littering because they are too SORRY to put it in the trash!!!!

  31. Mickey Powell on July 28th, 2021 1:35 am

    Fittingly and deservingly High Sheriff
    Mickey Powell
    Flomaton

  32. Jason on July 28th, 2021 1:03 am

    Preach it Sheriff Jackson. The same needs to be done in Escambia County Florida. Lots of litterbugs riding the roads tossing their trash out the window. Honestly, it isnt that hard to use a trash can.