re: Alabama sheriff’s deputy & capital murder suspect run away together - UPDATE: CAPTURED

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anyone else mention its weird that someone who is an assistant director for a county correction facility would be able to retire at the age of 56?

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She would have been a tier 1 employee under Retirement Systems of Alabama (whichever sub section of that a sheriff's office employee falls under). That means - IIRC- she would have gotten a slightly smaller percentage for each year's service and the required number of years and earliest eligibility for retirement would be much lower than anyone who started a state job after 2010, or so. She would have been vested at 10 years, but I believe she would have had to have served more years to get a full pension before 62, I believe (may be 20 for cops/fireman and 25 for everyone else). If she had 8 years with some other state agency, then she could have for sure easily retired with full benefits at 56.

That kind of system, of course, is unsustainable and the legislature made changes after 2010. Now it's 25 years to get a full PLUS your age and years of service have to equal 80, or some such. Only hangup is if you don't qualify for Medicare or have a be spouse who can include you in a family plan. They still let you buy into the state employees insurance plan, but you pay the full premium on which is $6-800/mo, depending.