Jail Committee holds its first meeting | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Beaufort County's committee studying a new jail met for the first time Tuesday (3-20-12). Those in attendance were: Jerry Langley, chairman of the committee and Board of Commissioners along with commissioners Hood Richardson and Al Klemm. Representing law enforcement were Sheriff Alan Jordan, Chief Deputy Kit Campbell, and Capt. Catrena Ross, the head of the county jail. Representing the judicial system were District Attorney Seth Edwards, Superior Court Judge Waylon Sermons and District Court judge Michael Paul. County Manager Randall Woodruff was also present.

    The session was essentially divisible into two parts. The first was a more or less roundtable discussion of "what do you see the needs to be" and the second part was a presentation by Todd Davis with Mosley Architects.

    In the first part of the session (the round table) Sheriff Alan Jordan spoke most frequently and for a longer cumulative period of time than did any other person. Jordan's theme was: "the current facility is bad and we need a new jail." He did not, however have very many hard facts to support his comments. One he did produce was that he thinks we need a 200-bed facility. Capt. Ross mostly responded to questions, most of which were related to case load management. She also emphasized that the physical monitoring capabilities of the current facility are very inadequate, such as there being existing "blind spots." She also briefed the committee on other deficiencies in the facility.

    There was also discussion about whether the court procedures impact the jail population flow and what might could be done to improve case management in the court system.

    Sheriff Jordan was the first to bring up the issue of the location of a jail. He stated that he did not have a particular site to propose but after listening to his criteria for a facility it was pretty clear that a remote site would be the most likely candidate to fit that bill. That, of course led to a discussion of transporting prisoners and that led to a discussion of housing prisoners in other facilities outside the county.

    Hood Richardson suggested that one factor that should be examined was what he called "judicial policy." That is, such things a setting bail, using electronic monitoring, the types of offenses that would cause more or less jail time and case flow management. He asked the judicial officials to explain what they see that the County can do to make the court system more efficient and effective.

    Commissioner Jerry Langley opined that he wanted to see a facility that would meet the needs for years to come by being expandable ("on at least a five-acre tract"). He also stated "I just don't want to see the county make a millionaire out of any prisoner," apparently referring to the threat of a law suit over the jail.

    As the discussion wore on it became increasingly clear that the specific deficiencies of the current facility were not being assessed against any set of concrete standards, other than "overcrowding" which was defined as being in excess of the prescribed 90 bed capacity. But there was no information presented about how much in excess of 90 the population has been, or how often it has exceeded the prescribed capacity. Moreover, no information was presented that shows what standards violations have been found in previous inspection reports.

    The rather free-wheeling discussion eventually led to a quick presentation by Todd Davis who reviewed the planning process he was prepared to assist in implementing. Davis is a former corrections official by training and experience and his firm, Mosley Architects, has designed numerous fail facilities in North Carolina. He offered to serve as a consultant to help the committee gather the information that will be needed to assess the needs and the options for meeting those needs.

    He told the Observer that he has personally been in every jail in North Carolina and that he knows many of the corrections officials at the state and county levels in the state. "I know how other counties have addressed similar problems and what has worked and what has not worked out so well," he told us.

    After his presentation, the committee, by consensus, asked him to prepare a proposal for presentation to the next County Commissioner's meeting. He indicated that he could do so and responded to a question that his proposal would probably be a planning process that would take from 90 to 120 days.

    The next meeting was scheduled for April 24th at 6:00 p.m.

    Check back later. We'll have more on the issue after completing some research.

    Commentary

    We were impressed with the committee the Commissioners have assembled. It appears to represent a broad base of "stakeholders," except the taxpayers, which we assume will be accomplished by the Board of Commissioners when they get to the point of deciding what to build and how to pay for it and ultimately by the people themselves if the financing is presented for a vote.

    We commend the committee for seeking expert assistance and we are impressed with Mr. Davis. He laid out a systematic planning process that appears to be data driven. And that is exactly what we did not hear in the roundtable discussion at the first of the meeting but the committee immediately concluded they needed a systematic planning process. That's a good thing.

    So we feel good about the kickoff. We commend County Manager Woodruff, who was the first person we heard propose the idea of this process.

    We'll look forward to seeing it pan out.

    Having said that, and as commendable as this commitee is for determining what to build and where to build it, that is only half the issue. How to pay for it is the more important half. We are in the depths of the worst recession in our life times and the county is broke. Is it a good time to borrow? Interest rates are low. But how much longer will they remain low (the Fed says at least for two more years). How much will we suffer until the cycle turns up. How soon will the recovery be and how strong will it be? All of those things must be factored into the jail decision.

    And what about other needs? Chocowinity needs new classrooms. How much liability does the County have from the hospital debacle? Will we have another Irene? Will wind power work out?

    But mainly, what's going to happen in Washington (DC that is)? Will we be another Greece? Will counties be dumped upon to solve the Medicaid and even the Medicare (ObamaCare) problem?

    The jail and a Sheriff's complex could be the least of our problems.