Donald Dixon tells Beaufort County how to solve its jail problem ... | Eastern North Carolina Now

elect him Sheriff and "I'll make the current jail work"

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer. This opinion by Sheriff Candidate Donald Dixon appears to be a long held belief. Sheriff Candidate Harry Meredith has long had a similar belief regarding the jail, and his opinions can be found here.

    Contrast and compare, make a decision, support a candidate. It's the American way. Beaufort County will surely benefit from your electoral involvement.

    Donald Dixon has told the Beaufort County Commission how to solve the jail problem: Elect him Sheriff. He appeared before the board at its regular monthly meeting Monday (10-7-13) night and spoke during the public comment section of the agenda. As you will hear in his closing remarks he pledged, if elected Sheriff that he would make the current jail work and that a new jail would not need to be built in the near future.

    Dixon has announced that he is running for Sheriff in the May Republican Primary and if nominated in the November, 2014 General Election. The filing period for that election has not yet begun. Several other people have announced also, but to our knowledge none has stepped forward with a "solution" to the jail problem.

    You can hear Dixon's comments in the video below, but in an interview Tuesday following the meeting he told the Observer that the major problem with the jail has been that it was not properly maintained. He blames that on the current Sheriff, saying that Alan Jordan has failed to manage the facility properly, indicating that he suspects the reason for that mismanagement was to make the jail bad enough to force the building of a new jail. Dixon indicated that he would see to it that the jail was properly maintained and work with the Board of Commissioners as well as any oversight committee they may wish to appoint to see to it that the jail was properly maintained to comply with state standards. "I am absolutely confident that working together we can do that. If regular maintenance had been done, and the backup power supply tested periodically, we would not have had to close the jail and spend all the money we have had to do. It was just poor management."

    When asked how he would deal with the reported occasional overcrowding of the current jail, Dixon said: "That's simple. Once the population approaches the permitted maximum I would send some of the inmates to neighboring counties. That would cost much less than building a new jail. Then I would work with the judicial system to see if we could not make more effective use of electronic monitoring (house arrest) for non-violent offenders, such as child support inmates. I would even be willing to consider alternative minimum custody arrangements on a temporary basis. Again, we're simply talking about better management."

    "Maybe we will have to build a new jail at some point in the future. But we ought to try good management before we raise taxes to build a new facility at this point in time," he said.

    Commentary

    We commend Donald Dixon for stepping forward and offering a plan for addressing the jail problem. What he is proposing makes sense. His approach may be the way the county could get through these tough economic times to keep from dumping a huge tax increase on the people and businesses of Beaufort County at a time when many are struggling with making ends meet.

    At least he has taken a stand and made a commitment for what he would do. We have not heard such plans from any of the other candidates to date, but we would welcome such and will offer any candidate equal space here to explain how they would solve the jail problem.

    Here' the video of Mr. Dixon's comment Monday night: