Here we go again ... They are trying to build a new, un-needed jail | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post appears courtesy of the Beaufort Observer.

    Those who want to build a new Beaufort County jail are back. They are the same kind of scheme that cost Beaufort County taxpayers over 40 million dollars in new schools about ten years ago. Here is how it worked: "Don't make needed repairs; spread rumors about how bad things are; play on the sympathy of the public; somehow everybody deserves better; make the public believe that somehow new school buildings will produce better educated children." Advocates for a new jail are presently trying to sell the public that a new and larger jail will reduce crime and give us a better quality of convict. These people are trying to shame us into doing what they call "the right thing" and spend another 25 million dollars for an extravagant new jail for criminals

    What we got out of the school bond fiasco was horrible. Schools have been built in places they are not enough student to fill the spaces. More expensive schools than were needed were built. The County Commissioners turned over 33 million dollars to a school board and a superintendent who were totally un-prepared and unskilled to handle a project of this size. They over ran the 33 million budget by more than 7 million dollars and even today the current board refuses to make efficient use of the current facilities with better student assignment policies.

    Certain county commissioners back then used their influence to dominate the school building process, getting favored treatment of some areas while neglecting other areas. Those commissioners were not competent, they were just lying politicians. We now have a school system that has a declining student population, with under-utilization of facilities in some areas and overcrowding in others. We have the Southside School that is half full, the North side school that is half full, the Washington High School that is over crowded with all of the problems that go with overcrowding and at least three new school buildings that are too large for their student populations. On a "students/square foot" standard S. W. Snowden is one of the most inefficiently used schools in the state. Oh yes, we still have a school board that cannot face reality and deal with these issues. Do we have better education? My answer is "No". We do have more expensive education? Yes.

    That is the kind of facilities planning that we have been subjected to by the "Beaufort County Way."

    Proponents of the new jail believe the trick to getting a new jail is the same one the schools used. That is to run the costs thru the ceiling and to harp about the care given to prisoners. Running the costs thru the ceiling started during January of 2018 when the prisoner count of those housed in Beaufort County was almost halved by shipping inmates to surrounding counties and paying for their custody. This means we are paying for about 30 to 40 prisoners each day to be housed out of county. That is about $1,500 per day. There are additional costs to transport prisoners to and from jails outside the county and to court.

    What happened? Jail cell block(s) were shut down because the Sheriff decided the electronically operated locks could not be relied upon. That is, he claims locks were not always locked when the control panel said they were locked.

    Those of us with normal intelligence would have called a repair man. The Sheriff did not, nor did he report this to the County Manager or Board of Commissioners. He simply contracted with other counties, and left the taxpayer to pick up the bill.

    A presentation was made at the so called "budget retreat" on January 30 and 31 that there were problems with the locks and prisoners were sent out of county. Statements were also made that there was no company or person to make these repairs. That was it, we were presented with a problem that could not be solved. Now, I have been a commissioner for 23 years and no one has ever presented this problem to the board before. The additional cost of $1,500 per day and the fact that the repairman had not been called were not presented to the Board.

    An email was sent to all commissioners a few days after the budget presentation. We were invited to tour of the jail at our convenience. Commissioner Stan Deatherage and I took the tour together. We found a jail that was half vacant, operating with a full staff. We visited the vacant cells and had staff operate some of the cell doors. We did not see any operational problems. Otherwise we found the jail to be in good condition and to be very clean.

    On the Friday after the budget retreat, I requested copies of jail door repair invoices and started locating companies that repair jail doors and provide control and monitor systems. I found two who are very interested in doing work for us. This information was presented to the Sheriff's Department. It quickly became apparent there was foot dragging. It seems that the Information Technology person, Joseph Knox, was having difficulty getting thru the switchboard at least one of these companies. Knox is paid 51,000 dollars per year with two years of experience.

    I then contacted Commissioner Deatherage. He and I met with Chairman Evans and Manager Brian Alligood who indicated they were not aware of the huge daily cost of the jail situation. Commissioner Deatherage and I requested an Emergency Called Commissioner meeting. Our reasoning was the next regularly scheduled commissioners meeting was one month away and we would burn through another $45,000 before the commissioners could meet, much less solve the problem.

    Manager Brian Alligood volunteered that he would make the calls to the companies and set up meetings for them to visit the jail and do assessments to price the repairs.

    Did you notice the foot dragging by the Sheriff.

    Meetings have now been set up. Commissioner Deatherage and I plan to attend. We do not want another School Bond fiasco. We do not want the facts to be distorted.

    Looking back at this situation, I believe some of the commissioners support a new jail and they are sitting on their hands. We had the same thing happen during the school fiasco. A lot of money was wasted on that deal and education was not helped. The same thing will happen with the jail. The Sheriff has not shown any management ability during the past four years. A good example is the $346,000 he spent on one prisoner for health care. His only excuse for this was that he did not know what was going on. This is the same game again. The Sheriff and a few commissioners are colluding to build a new jail that is not needed. We desperately need management from either the Sheriff, the County manager or the Board of Commissioners.