No one can know whether we need a new jail until the current jail is properly managed | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post appears courtesy of the Beaufort Observer.

    Each county in North Carolina has a Grand Jury as required by law. One of the requirements of every Grand Jury is to inspect the county jail on a regular basis. In addition, the law requires that the State inspect every county jail twice a year and make a report of any deficiencies.

    In Beaufort County, in recent years, the Sheriff and Chief Detention Officers have played games with both of these inspections. Those games are designed to try to get a new jail built by making the existing jail look as bad as possible.

    The Big Game is played with the Grand Jury report. The Sheriff's staff does a "walk through" for the Grand Jury and shows them "the problems." We have reason to believe that the staff has sometimes actually written the report for the Grand Jury Foreman to sign. The most recent report appears to be a continuation of this Game.

    Here's what you and the public need to know.

    State law prescribes the standards every county jail must meet. The State Inspection reports any standards that are deficient. Every report usually contains some deficiencies. Those have always been immediately corrected. Once done, the jail meets the requirements as spelled out by law.

    So it becomes interesting to compare the two inspections. What you will find is that the Grand Jury report usually does not match the State Inspections. That is because the jail staff tries to make the jail look bad on the Grand Jury report, apparently hoping they will get a brand-new jail, or other things not required by law that they want. Click here to review the 2018 Grand Jury jail report.

    Jails are not intended to provide first class services to inmates. They are intended to provide basic every day service to those who are incarcerated. I say it again. Our jail is in compliance with the laws of the State of North Carolina. It is clean and will kept. The Grand Jury report dated December 10, 2018 deals with things that are not required by law. No grand Jury can possibly tour any institution and pick out all of the non-complaint items presented in this report without the Sheriff telling them what to say. Please note, when I say the "Sheriff" I am referring to his representatives.

    Please note the purpose of this visit is to insure there are no standards we are not in compliance with. The purpose is not to give the jurors' opinion or to give us their opinion on what they prefer or how they would like the world to be. Clearly this report exceeds their mandate.

    The management on the part of the Sheriff is simply deficient. He wants a new jail estimated to cost 25 million dollars. He has failed to submit work order to provide adequate maintenance or confer with the Board of Commissioners about problems that could have been fixed before they became problems. I continue to advocate for speedy trials, so prisoners do not have to spend so much time in jail, and a screening system to get more people out of jail pending trial. The District Attorney has done a good job of this, when it has been reported to him. But our Sheriff has never reported anything to the DA to let him know of inmates who need to be brought to trial immediately.

    Our jail is in compliance with the requirement of the State of North Carolina rules and laws. It is inspected two times each year and is in better condition than many jails in the state.

    No citizens is safe with this kind of thinking contained in the Grand Jury Report. This report is a hit piece for a new jail from the Sheriff.

    Our jail meets or exceeds state standards and would benefit from the Sheriff doing a better job of inmate load management and better management of maintenance and repairs. That needs to be done before we jump on the "new jail" bandwagon.