And a Jail, Too?

Holding Illegals The Most Urgent Factor

The most important projects to benefit from the approval of the .25% increase in the sales tax are the potential renovations at Lee County High School and a new Continuing Education building for CCCC's Jonesboro campus. Yet, the Fair Tax committee brochure mentions a jail, too. It is an obvious attempt to broaden the appeal of projects that are in the commissioner's portfolio of pending capital projects.

The fact is the jail is nearing capacity. A lot of factors in law enforcement and the judicial system impact the demand for jail beds. There are really no plans for a new jail facility although the growth of the county and court policies may well demand one in as little as five years. Sheriff Tracy Carter has come up with a plan to delay the need for a entirely new facility by adding more cells to the current facility. The preliminary estimate is $650,000, but the facility could become a money maker.

The US Marshall Service and ICE (Immigration Customs and Enforcement) can reimburse local jails for the cost of holding federal prisoners.

When the current jail was built, the third floor provided a recreation area for the inmates. Neither our current or former sheriff ever allowed the inmates to use the gymnasium-like facility for Federal inmates held at Lee County Jail. Most of these would likely be illegal aliens who have committed crimes and identified under new programs Sheriff Carter is pursuing. (See earlier post.) According to the County Improvement Plan:

This project will renovate the jail gymnasium into dormitory style housing for Federal inmates held at Lee county Jail. Renovations to this area will provide 30 additional beds and living quarters to help decrease the overcrowding of the jail facility. Recent immigration laws (Session Law 2007-494: House Bill 229) mandates NC jails to determine the immigration status of foreign-born detainees. To this end, we have encountered a rash increase (from 7 percent to 20 percent) of illegal immigrants in our facility. Due to this increase in jail population, overcrowding continues to manifest within the present housing areas. In addition, statutory requirements set forth in 10A NCAC 14J Rules and Laws Governing the Operations, Surveillance and Monitoring of Jail Facilities provides minimum guidelines with regards to housing of inmates. It is imperative that our facility meet these standard provisions to prevent potential or future law suits as it relates to overcrowding issues.

The sheriff has asked that the project be begun this year, but the county manager has recommended that it not be started to next year. Perhaps the passage of the tax will move up the project or commissioners will decide the jail renovation is a higher priority than investments in facilities for new office space for some county departments.