Charles Dickens understood the court system.
A key element in Dickens’ novel Bleak House was a generations-old inheritance lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce. After the book was published, the imaginary case became a watchword for a never-ending legal proceeding.
Broward County has its own Jarndyce and Jarndyce.
But Broward’s seemingly endless lawsuit over the ill treatment of jail inmates appears to be reaching an end after 40 years.
Let me write that again: After 40 years!
Gerald Ford was president when the suit was filed. Rueben Askew was governor and there has been eight governors since that time.
When the suit was filed, the current main jail was a decade away from construction.
The jail was being run at the time of the suit by Sheriff Ed Stack, who later became a member of Congress. He was followed by seven sheriffs.
