Beaufort County Grand Jury is a Disappointment | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Normally, I think of the Grand Jury being my protection or stop gap between overly enthusiastic prosecutors and the court system. After reading the Beaufort County Grand Jury report of their required by statute jail inspection I am reminded of the District Attorney who said " I can indict a ham sandwich". He was telling the truth. It all depends on what and what and how he tells the Grand jury to get the indictment. Same thing happened on the 2018 jail inspection. The ham sandwich got indicted because the grand jury lost track of what it is supposed to be doing. Now, I am un easy about how useful today's Grand Juries are.

    Jails are not intended to provide first class services to inmates. They are intended to provide basic every day service to those who are accused of criminality. I say it again. Our jail is in compliance with the laws of the State of North Carolina. It is clean and will kept. The Grand Jury report dated December 10, 2018 is reproduced below. No grand Jury can possibly tour any institution and pick out all of the complaint items presented in this report without the sheriff telling them what to say. Please note, when I say the Sheriff I am referring to his representatives.

    Please note the purpose of this visit is to insure there are no deplorable conditions in the jail, and not to give the juror's opinion of the Commissioners or to give us their opinion on what they prefer or how they would like the world to be.

    12-10-18: Grand Jury visit to Beaufort County Jail

    Lt. Kat Bryan tour has left the grand jury in agreement of the deplorable general notice and lack of willingness of our community to bring this entity into the century we live in.

    We see that money is flowing out to this facility when forced to re house; transportation to other jails an other courts; contract food services and the list continues. With citations against the jail the loss of grant funding fails us all and the community that needs it the most.

    If not for staff and leadership of those operating the jail; this county I simply sliding by:

    Toured areas: 1.) Intake area too small and conducive of mayhem 2) control room too small for staff, no space for meeting 3.) processing room too small, inadequate 4.) conference - not large enough to dignify the moniker "conference" 5.) Kitchen food brought in by contractor -why? In cooers! 6) Visiting area -doubles as garbage and laundry bin storage -using "speaking boxes", standing not condusive to actually visiting

    7)General housing - dangerous to have 4 persons in cell with one toilet during midnight to 6 am

    8 Clinic - barely passable as a clinic -too small to function

    9) Remodeled area in general housing - cells face to face not allowing for required "separating" needs

    The jail has no refrigerator, no allowance for fire department (word not legible) to move around. There is no natural light, no exercise area, no allowance for upgraded IT to service a population that needs the most, to see attorneys, family volunteers who are there to facilitate rehabilitation.

    Those who handle the funding that could change the future of this facility need to spend a few nights there themselves. Please understand spending the money now to fix this outrageous system will return.

    The "daily rights violations" overarching theme should wake up our county commissioners to put aside personal political agendas and not let this jail be the worse in the state of North Carolina.

    Signed (Joseph Sapp)

    Please note, I have presented this type written version as closely as I can using the punctuation, spelling and sentence structure as the original hand written document. The reader may obtain a copy and a list of jurors from the Beaufort County Clerk of Court.

    There is no management on the part of the Sheriff. He wants a new jail estimated to cost 25 million dollars. I continue to advocate for speedy trials so prisoners do not have to spend so much time in jail, and a screening system to get more people out of jail pending trial..Our jail is in compliance with the requirement of the State of North Carolina rules and laws. It is inspected two times each year

    No citizens is safe with this kind of thinking. This report is a hit piece for a jail from the Sheriff.