What is Sheriff Alan Jordan Hiding? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the County Compass, which is affiliated with the Beaufort Observer.

    Beaufort County commissioners voted have the jail open one day each week while prisoners are out of town and providing it did not interfere with repairs so the public could see what their jail looks like. Alan Jordan, in his illegal capacity as King of Beaufort County and sole owner of the jail, refused. One would think Jordan would want the jail open so the public could see how truthful his reports have been about his representations about the horrible, inhumane, and moldy conditions in the jail. Something like those French prisons where they, at one time, sent their political prisoners. Not many people came back from those prisons. Certainly, when the public saw how bad conditions are, they would demand a new 20 to 30 million dollar jail. I thought I was helping Big Al (Allan Jordan) when I made the motion.

    The telling thing about Big Al's motives is his quote published in the Washington Daily News on Saturday August 10. Here is what he said: "....The media has to be the eyes and ears of he general public right now". Wow, I am media. One of the reasons I along with the Editorial staff of the Beaufort Observer go to the trouble to write these articles is because the liberal media is not reliable. At one time Big Al allowed commissioners to accompany the press into the jail. He soon stopped that. I pointed out the rust spot on the ceiling was not mold as the press believed. Two opinions are always better than one, especially when one is truthful and one is not. Big Al is willing to allow the press into the jail to see his staged events. Big Al gets burned every time honest objective observers either see or investigate jail conditions.

    Let me remind you, Big Al had the press calling the jail a "dungeon" until the County Manager, and three commissioners visited the jail about three months ago. Big Al had set up the press. The mold was there because a shower head had been removed with hot water running continuously for at least 20 days. There had been no effort to cleanup the accumulated mold or to repair the plumbing. This makes a great story until one becomes aware that Big Al is responsible for notifying the proper people that repairs are needed and then following up to see that repairs are made. Big Al is also responsible for the cleanliness of the jail. Big Al had carried out none of his responsibilities. Big Al does not want anyone in the jail who may not support his staged stories.

    Big Al claims to be the worlds greatest, law man, jailer, and maintenance manager. He has cost us more than 500,000 dollars because he failed to do his job and insure the emergency electrical system was operational. The system had not been connected to the jail since the startup of the peak shaving generator at the northwest corner of the court house went into service almost one year ago. Big Al is supposed to, at least monthly and preferably weekly, operate the system so he can be sure he can get prisoners out of the jail in an emergency situation. Big Al was clueless until he got hit with the June 6 and June 8 outages.

    One of the tactics all bureaucrats use to get new equipment, buildings and even jails is to allow the old facility to fall into disrepair and/or become obsolete.

    Big Al did a great job in the Saturday August 9 Washington Daily News of telling how good of a job he has done in the past in having jail visits. Sounds like he had a tea party every week. So, wht does he suddenly have to hide?

    Another phony argument that Big Al tells is how dangerous it is in the jail now. That is pure baloney. He never says what is dangerous. He expects you to believe it because he said it.

    Alan Jordan gets away with insulting the public in many ways. Not just the jail situation. Big Al refuses to make public various documents from the 911 call in system, his office and various log books. At present, Jordan refused to produce a roster of prisoners. Jordan maintains there are no written reports of confinement of Beaufort County prisoners. If this is true we have an important problem in managing our confined prisoners. At which jails are prisoners located? If there are no records, how do we know where prisoners are located so they can be delivered to court rooms for trial? How do we know who and when to release when time is served? How do we know how much and to which county to pay for housing. Jordan wants to be uncooperative and in doing so makes himself look bad in so far as his management ability and character are concerned. Sadly, if one believes Jordan, one realizes that things are bad in the Sheriffs department and we need a change. If you do not believe him one comes to realize we have a person in elected office who should not be there because his character is suspect when he refuses to perform his duties. Either way we have looser.

    Jordan, as I remember has been in office almost 17 years. How, has he managed to survive that long. There are many devious ways that lead to this kind of success. He has run campaigns to convince the public and county commissioners that he is the most powerful official in the county, kept information the public should have and intimidated a lot of people. The single most important thing that has kept him in office has been the ineptness of the Beaufort County Commissioners. The majority of the commissioners both Democrat and Republican have allowed Jordan to go thru as much as $70,000 in a year for drug buy money with no accounting for the money in terms of arrests, to spend $250,000 (the low compliance estimate) each year to be a member of national law enforcement club that has no benefit for Beaufort County, to spend as much as $100,000 per year for private health club memberships and allow their use while working with no challenge from the county commissioners. County commissioners are supposed to see that your money is spent wisely. We allot his budget each year. We helped him waste this money.

    Jordan is no different from any child who is allowed to do as they please. Sooner or later the child becomes the king of the county. Blame the Commissioners for failing to do their job and blame Jordan for lacking the good judgement to do his job correctly. Everybody is covering everybody's back.

    This is the scarey part. Jordan may be seeking a higher office when he retires from being sheriff or he could suddenly decide to run for sheriff again. If he does not run for office he will have time on his hands. Should he run for any position his entire career would become an issue. There would be a swril of accusations about the number of unsolved murder cases, the arrest of street dealers and Jordan's inability to get the Mr. Bigs of drug traffic, the letters to constituents that the Sheriff did not have time to investigate your larceny because thieves did not steal enough or his department was short handed (because they were at the health spa), Jordan has a sorry record with personnel, a high turnover rate and the inability to keep experienced employees. Then there are the incidents involving Big Al being charged with traffic offences by City of Washington officers and how that is being suppressed.

    I cannot describe Big Al as being open and friendly.
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