The Beaufort County Jail Issue | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The Beaufort County Jail is a big issue these days, and that's a shame. There are so many more problems with the Sheriff's Department that the jail is actually distracting attention from addressing those problems. The problem with the jail is simple: It has been poorly managed and the solution can be just as simply stated: Properly manage the facility and the county will not need to build a new jail for some time to come. Now is not the time to spend $20 million or even 5-10 million dollars on a new facility. Elect a Sheriff who can properly manage the existing jail before you build a new one. I am confident I can make the current facility work. Just give me an opportunity to prove it. We don't need to raise taxes until we know we have no other option.

    One of my opponent's talks about my being reckless with words when I say the current jail has been poorly managed, while he tries to take credit for things that were being done in the jail long before he was hired, while other things that he claims credit for were simply part of his job. There was nothing miraculous being done in the jail, if anything NOT ENOUGH was done. There has not been an adequate maintenance program. My opponent had no scheduled maintenance program when he supervised the jail. And clearly the Sheriff did not know for over a year that the backup power supply was not even operative. And you have to wonder why they bought and installed a high voltage dryer without knowing whether the electrical system could handle it. You don't have to be an engineer to know when you put a new load on a system you have someone who knows what they're doing determine the system can take that load.

    It's just like the plexiglass. My opponent was responsible for that. He says he's a problem solver. The problem he solved was prisoners being able to reach through the bars. His solution was to install plastic glass that did not meet the fire codes. It had to be ripped out and replaced as a cost of over $25,000. That lack of maintenance is why plumbing and electrical problems only got worse. As for my opponent having a plan to run the jail, we have to assume it would be more of the same mismanagement. I stand behind my assertion that mismanagement has cost us nearly a half million dollars (to repair what should have been kept up all along and the expense of contracting out the housing of the inmates when the jail was closed for repairs.) That should have never happened. Preventative maintenance could have reduced that expense significantly.

    I've been in the service business for 35 years and I know how to maintain facilities.

   •  My opponent excuses his negligence by saying that "people" should have complained if there were problems. That's pure nonsense. People, including me, could not blow the whistle on mismanagement because they wouldn't let anyone they didn't control in the jail to see what was going on. And we've seen how the Sheriff even kicked a commissioner out of the jail. When was the last time you saw a news report on the operations of the jail? I challenge any citizen to try to visit the jail and see how it's run. You can't because the jail is a locked down secure facility housing prisoners. We on the outside rely on accurate reports from the Sheriff's Office about the jail, and all their operations. There is no oversight, so problems are covered up or expanded by those with something to gain. I am in favor of an oversight committee for the jail and Sheriff's Office for that very reason. My opponent does not want any oversight; my opponent has something to hide.

   •  When I am elected Sheriff of Beaufort County in 2014 there are issues I will be addressing to correct problems in various areas in the Sheriff's Office. One of the most important areas is that of the jail. But that's only one area. The operation of the Sheriff's Office, under my opponent and the current Sheriff, is a secret operation. I will change that. The Sheriff's Office will operate transparently. I will set performance standards and publish performance data. I will work with the Commissioners to establish a proper oversight program to continuously monitor policies, operating procedures, review citizens' complaint, and make financial records open to the press and public. I will recommend an Oversight Committee to insure continuous improvement in the Sheriff's Office.

   •  Under my administration, inmates over the permitted limit will be farmed out to other neighboring counties (Pitt, Craven etc. ...) to eliminate overcrowding in our jail when the need presents itself. I will farm out those that will require the least transportation until we can move them back into our facility. It is much cheaper to do that than build a new, excess capacity facility.

   •  A maintenance schedule will be part of policy and carried out by the jail administrator, county engineer, a security team, designees of the judges and hopefully, an oversight committee. This team will perform a walk-through of the jail on a regular basis to check plumbing, ventilation, electrical, lighting, as well as the generator and switching mechanism monthly. There will be a report sent to the Sheriff and County Manager and made available to the press.

   •  Jailers work under stressful conditions, and that is true even in new facilities. Being a Detention Officer is not a pleasant job. Therefore, I will go before the County Commissioners to advocate a substantial revision in the pay schedule for our Detention Officers. It is hard to better the working conditions for the jailers, but my administration will attempt to improve working conditions and compensation and address issues as they come up. I am confident that by dropping the CALEA affiliation (as NC Highway Patrol did earlier this year) we can free up money to raise the pay of our Detention Officers.

    While my opponent distorts the truth to try to cover-up the problems that have existed for a long time in the jail, I remind him that he claims he ran that office. He owns those problems, just as do some others who have worked in the Sheriff's Office while these conditions got worse and worse. If it were not for mismanagement and failure to carry out that which was needed, we would not be talking about building a jail now, in this economy.

    The current Sheriff's office administration (they call it the "command") has been overrun with bureaucratic incompetence coupled with a tremendous amount of energy, effort and expense to cover up the results of that incompetence. You have to wonder if the crusade to cast the problem as the need to build a new facility was nothing more than a way to divert attention away for bureaucratic malfeasance. It's pretty obvious to me that all the secrecy is caused by this cover-up.

    When was the last time you heard the Sheriff give the public a performance report on what the Sheriff's Office was accomplishing? I don't think you can find any such transparency. The current Sheriff does not even go before the Commissioners to disclose what is happening in his department. Wonder why you never see him? I think it is time to clean house in the top ranks of the Sheriff's Office. There are some good people in that department, but the bureaucracy has become bloated and riddled with incompetence and even in some cases, corruption.

    The problem the citizens of Beaufort County are faced with is whether they want to continue the failures of the past or whether they want a fresh change in the Sheriff's Office. I offer that fresh approach based on effective management, continuous improvement, a transparent operation and proper oversight.

    I submit to you that it just makes sense to straighten out the inept bureaucracy and then see if we need a new building program. Give me a chance. Give good management a chance. I am confident I can do the job and do it for less than we are now spending. I am asking the voters to give me a chance at it before the county raises taxes and spends millions of dollars on things that will not solve the root problem.