The Jail, the District Attorney, Smoke and more Smoke | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The District Attorney, Seth Edwards, wrote an editorial responding to criticisms I made about the failure of his office to try criminal cases promptly after arrests have been made. I accused the DA of being a part of the reason we need to build a new jail. I made my complaints at the January 7th Commissioners meeting. Seth Edwards responded with a defensive editorial in the January 12 issue of the Washington Daily News.

    As a rule of thumb, I have found those who protest loudest have the weakest case, or me thinks he protests too much. All the District Attorney had to do was to take his admission about how much time the five accused have spent in jail and promise to do better. The article ran in the Washington Daily News on January 12, 2013. We would have all understood that. Instead he tries to tell us it is all right for tax payers to pay for prisoners to have jail vacations at a cost to the Beaufort County tax payer of more than $20,000 per year for each inmate plus the cost of their medical care and on going legal expense. The total cost is estimated to be more than a quarter of a million dollars and continues to increase at the rate of about three hundred dollars per day.

    District Attorney, Seth Edwards, missed several important points about my complaint. First there is the cost. What about the victim's rights? We have victims rights legislation in North Carolina. Maybe Seth Edwards would like to tell us how many times he has fought hard to have victims compensated. What about the constitutional right to a speedy trial? "O" I forgot, the criminal is not in a hurry, he has a free lawyer, food, shelter and free medical care. His lawyer is not in a hurry because he gets to keep billing the public. Those who know in their heart that criminals need better treatment, and those who want bigger jails and law enforcement centers are not in a hurry either.
This image is from back in 2004, back when Commissioner Hood Richardson had hair ... uh, strike that comment: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage
    The only person concerned is the tax payer. The tax payer is represented only by the Beaufort County Commissioners. We have to tax you to pay for the expense of funding the jail. The state taxes you for the expense of the free lawyers, and the District Attorney and his staff along with the judges. If justice were swift and sure the public, the victims and the accused would be better off. Unfortunately all those who get paid money within this system want the public to believe that somehow they know what is best for us. They want us to believe taking a lot of time to try a case gives us better justice.
   
    I believe that if we have five or six residents in the jail who have overstayed their welcome, there may be a lot of other prisoners whose jail time before trial could be shortened. This may be why Edwards has to defend his behavior about jail residency. He is right to think my next move will be to examine every jail resident as to why they have been there so long.

    Edwards was deliberately vague and implies there was some secret behind why Beaufort County is housing the two convicted murders for so long. They should have been transferred to the State Prison System when convicted. Holding them so they can testify against others involved in the murder is not a good argument. We can go get them from the State Prison cheaper than we can house them for several years. If they were all in it together at the same time, why does it take so long between trials. Maybe justice is like wine, aging it makes it better.

    Ultimately the cost of the jail and efficient operations do not rest with the District Attorney, the Judges, the Sheriff, or the jailers. The responsibility belongs to the County Commissioners and the citizens of Beaufort County. We provide the money.

    I have repeatedly requested all the members of the Jail Committee to discuss how we move forward in controlling criminality and how the building of a new jail could save money. Not one member of the Jail Committee has been willing to open up a discussion of how we can reduce crime, and narcotics in Beaufort County. Most members have made statements supporting a new jail, and a new criminal justice complex. Not one has been able to state how Beaufort County will be made safer with this estimated 30 million dollar facility that will house 288 prisoners. The jail committee has judges, commissioners, the district attorney and law enforcement members. Beaufort County School building disaster is a good example of what throwing money at a situation with a one sided plan will do for you.

    Commissioners have addressed the accusations about safety by increasing staff . Over crowding is not an issue at the moment with the population as low as 42 in a facility permitted for about 80 inmates.

    Talk about the efficiency of the court system, during the week beginning January 14, 2013 the Superior Court was finished on Wednesday afternoon. There were no cases to try on Thursday and Friday. . It is time for the District Attorney to stop feeling important and try the cases in the jail. Edwards says I am accusing him of being the reason cases are backed up. He is correct, I am accusing him unless he can direct me to the proper culprit.

    Edwards talks about the present jail being a lawsuit waiting to happen. Let us use some common sense. If we can reduce the number of people in the jail, we do not need a new jail. There may be a few things other than eliminating the inefficiency in the DA's office that can be done to reduce the prisoner population. The use of pre trial release and ankle bracelets could reduce jail population. That would require the prisoner to feed himself, provide lodging and pay for his medical care. To date the jail committee has not been willing to address how to reduce our jail population with out harming public safety.