When a cardiac arrest hospitalized Chatham County Sheriff John Wilcher in June, bipartisan community support poured in for the 80-year-old Republican.
Since returning to work last month, Wilcher now faces multiple challenges: juggling health concerns with the rigors of his office and an energetic Democratic opponent, Richard Coleman, who says it is time for fresh leadership at Georgia’s fifth-largest jail.
Wilcher is currently using a wheelchair, and he says he is working two days in the office and at home on other days. He insists he still has energy for a third and final term leading the agency of 600 employees and on average 1,200 inmates.
“I’m ready to go. I’ll do my job. If it comes two years from now that I can’t do my job, then I’ll step down,” Wilcher said in an interview with The Current. “I’m not going to die in office.”
Coleman, 50, a two-time Georgia police chief and longtime Savannahian, said comments like that lay bare Wilcher’s intended plans: Win one more election, step down during his term and let the Republican governor appoint someone whom Wilcher approves of. It’s a scenario that he says is “unfair” to voters.
In the event of a vacancy, the chief deputy takes over as interim sheriff, according to Georgia law. It does not say the governor can appoint a sheriff, but instead, a special election is called for the constitutional office. The exception to that is when there’s less than 6 months left in the term, and then a new sheriff would be chosen in the regular election cycle.
“Why play with the seat when you have pre-plans to step aside?” Coleman told The Current. “That’s unfair to the citizens.”
Sheriff seeks third term
Wilcher spent more than half his life working for the agency he has led since 2016, when he won a special election to succeed the previous sheriff, Al St. Lawrence, who died during his sixth term at 81.
Friends, staff and political allies affectionately describe Wilcher as “cantankerous.” They say he tries to personally answer every phone call and is transparent with the good and the bad of his agency.
Many of the issues at play in Wilcher’s third campaign are the same from his first: staffing, mental health, keeping detainees safe and medical care.
Wilcher was the first sheriff to invest in mental health care in the Chatham County jail, working with county commissioners to secure funding for psychiatrists and counselors. Over the years, he has refurbished jail units, overhauled internal tracking of inmates to reduce suicides and secured six raises for deputies, as well as incentives for them to work weekends.
“I truly understand what goes on in this office — behind them sliding doors, in the street, and then the courts, how to deal with the judges and the people and everything else,” Wilcher said.
Candidates tout strengths, weaknesses
But Wilcher’s strengths — his 48-year experience and straight-shooter attitude — could also serve as political weaknesses in 2024.
Those traits, according to Coleman, could just as easily be seen in a different light: an old guard leader unwilling to change in the face of criticism.
Nowhere is this more apparent than on the issue of jail visitation for detainees, people in jail awaiting trial and not convicted of a crime.
The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t allowed traditional face-to-face visits for over a decade. Up until 2019, a family member visiting a detainee would have to video conference via an on-site facility while the detainee sits in another part of the jail. In-person, but not face-to-face.
Then, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Wilcher’s agency instituted a virtual visit policy, whereby detainees use tablets that allow video calls. Attorneys, not families, are the only parties allowed to visit in-person and face-to-face with Chatham detainees.
The only other option for detainees is to pay per minute to talk on jail telephones. The virtual visits and phone calls proved easier to manage during steep understaffing and also lucrative for Coastal Georgia jails, according to a recent investigation by The Current.
Between 2021 and 2023, Wilcher’s agency collected nearly $1.3 million in fees from the contracts.
The Current’s investigation found that the fees strained finances of low-income families whose loved ones were too poor to make bond and therefore were cut off from communities who can help reduce recidivism.
The reporting spurred Coleman to announce a new policy should he win: free and in-person visitation.
“These companies get fees. Everybody’s making a dollar, that’s what this comes down to,” Coleman said. “I’m going to stand on humanity. (I’m) not going to mistreat people, mistreat families and dehumanize people because they are detained or in detention.”
Wilcher defends the system as a way to pay for programs intended to help detainees, like job training or substance abuse treatment, without having to raise taxes on Chatham residents. He told The Current that the policy keeps his jailors safe as well.
Wilcher has implemented other changes as well during his current term, measures he says are to protect his staff.
Families of detainees are now prohibited from sending mail directly to their loved ones. All mail not from an attorney is scanned and printed out, a process meant to defend against criminals trying to smuggle narcotics, Wilcher says. Books can not be sent from individuals. They have to arrive via a specific seller approved by the sheriff.
“These inmates that sit behind them walls have no time except to think of things to get stuff (smuggled) into them, so they can, Number one, make money; Number two, be the kingpin back there,” Wilcher said.
“We’re trying everything in the world to keep them safe from themselves,” He continued, “And people on the outside don’t understand that.”
That’s the top reason why Wilcher curbed face-to-face visits between detainees and their loved ones.
But it’s also a rationale that Coleman rejects. He says Wilcher’s position is just an excuse to maintain the status quo.
“You’re gonna always have safety issues,” Coleman said. “If safety was a big issue, there wouldn’t be any incidents in the jail at all … So, I’m not going to make an excuse. We’re going to prepare ourselves for in-person visitation. That is the call of the sheriff.”
Plans for future
Should Wilcher win a third-term, he said he hopes to continue making the sheriff’s office facility off of Chatham Parkway a training hub for area law enforcement. One plan includes building an emergency vehicle driving track for prospective officers to train on, while another includes building a new classroom.
If Coleman wins, he says his first priority will be a review of the sheriff’s office business operations.
Coleman said he would review contracts, including the medical contract for CorrectHealth, which has led to lawsuits and accusations of improper campaign donations to Wilcher in recent years.
He would also target recruitment. The agency is currently down approximately 80 deputies, which is an improvement from close to 200 vacancies in 2022.
Strategies: Keep old, find new voters
With early voting starting this week, it is unclear how Chatham residents are digesting the two conflicting campaign messages: Wilcher’s position of experience and name recognition, versus Coleman’s slogan of change.
To push his message, Wilcher is relying on the relationships and networks he spent a lifetime building. He appeared last week at a fundraiser at the Forest City Gun Club alongside Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns. Surrogates there urged attendees to get out the vote for Wilcher and other Republicans.
For his part, Coleman is working to keep Democratic voters from defecting to Wilcher. He counts Black voters as a key demographic and is focusing canvassing and phone-banking efforts in majority-Black districts ahead of Election Day.
There are no forums scheduled for either candidate.
This story was updated to clarify how Georgia succession laws work to fill a vacant sheriff’s office.
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