Woman feels sympathy for inmates and bails out 24 of them whom she doesn't know

[Terminator]

Maybe it was the steady diet of baloney.

Beverly Johnson has been in jail and doesn't like it. On Wednesday, the formerly homeless woman revisited Broward County Jail, this time as a liberator, spending $1,641 to pay the bonds of two-dozen inmates being held on minor charges.

"I did this because I spent time in jail and know what it's like. It's awful in there," the 54-year-old former social worker said. "The food is horrible. It's baloney every day."

The people Johnson set free were typically homeless and unable to pay bonds of $25 to $100 on charges like trespassing, loitering or disorderly conduct. Those were the same type of charges for which Johnson was arrested by Fort Lauderdale police some 20 times while on the street from November 2001 to June 2003, she said.

A divorce settlement has turned Johnson into a property owner. Two duplexes in Fort Lauderdale and a triplex on the edge of the city's Rio Vista area bring in about $4,000 a month, she said. Johnson lets some homeless people stay in her triplex.

Johnson's "get out of jail free" day wasn't her first. On at least five previous occasions she has freed from one to six inmates at a time, for a total of about 50, including Wednesday's purge, Johnson said. The cost? "An easy 10 grand," she said.

Johnson said she received psychiatric treatment when she spent about two months in a homeless shelter. "Bipolar disorder, that's the diagnosis I've been given time and time again," she said. "They're giving me medicine for bipolar and I take my medicine religiously."

Johnson believes she suffers from attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity disorder.

Public Defender Howard Finkelstein praised Johnson's altruism. "When you do something for somebody else for no other reason than it is the right thing to do, that's very impressive to me," he said.

Johnson may also be providing a slight break for the public, which foots the approximately $80 a day it costs to house a county inmate.

Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Vida Coleman-Wright downplayed the affect of Johnson's actions on a jail operation that handles nearly 80,000 inmates a year. "I wouldn't say this happens every day, but this is not uncommon," she said. "Beverly's done this before."

Johnson said she achieves satisfaction from knowing she made someone's life easier. "There are all the homeless people that I helped that love me," she said.

The beneficiaries of Johnson's generosity were not able to thank her in person. They weren't released until hours after she left the jail.

[jmur5074]

Wow

Well, I guess I can see how this is somewhat beneficial

But if she's got so much money, why doesn't she buy these homeless folks new clothes so they can look nice when they apply for jobs, so they can get off the street, and stop coming to jail?

[HudsonHawk]

Her picture is in the dictionary next to "EDP".

[Prometheus]

Johnson lets some homeless people stay in her triplex.

That's gonna get her in trouble. The place will be a crack house within a fortnight.

[Iron Man]

What a stupid woman!

[cntryboy0531]

That's gonna get her in trouble. The place will be a crack house within a fortnight.

Uh huh. $4000 a month in payments a month to her, is going to go down drastically. It'll be a shithole in no time. Pretty soon, she and the others will be homeless again, and in and out of jail.

Instead of giving them "get out of jail free" cards, why don't she do something to help them get a job, and out of the criminal justice system?

I can't stand a fucking handout.