Cabarrus Cheap Seats

There’s a cover-up! Well, there might be one. Anyhow, whenever there’s a suspicion of a cover-up Harold always conveniently has a letter handy. Here goes:

Open letter to John Day, Cabarrus County Manager
The letter below from the State Chief of Jails ask you why you have not looked at two options to solving the jail overcrowding.
Why was this information not made public? Is this a cover-up to keep important onformation from the public? Will your response to the State Chief of Jails be made public?
To: Mr. John Day - Cabarrus County Manager November 1, 2005
Mr. Brad Riley - Cabarrus County Sheriff 

Re: Cabarrus County Jail
Thank you for the responses that were received by this office. It is nice to see that local officials are aware of the overpopulation in the jail and that they are interested in finding solutions to the problem. The responses have helped clarify some of the questions that this office was not clear about. However, there are still two options that this office feels are not being fully explored. They are as follows:

Transfer of inmates to other counties: The response to this option stated that Cabarrus County was hoping to send some of the inmate overflow to Alamance County in January of 2006. Although we hope this prospect is realized, no response was given in finding bed space at any other jails. This office recently contacted five jails in the Piedmont Region to present information to another counties Board of Commissioners. As a result of this inquiry, the jails contacted reported having approximately 157 empty beds. The counties contacted were Davie, Lincoln, Alamance, Rockingham and Iredell. Other counties in the region that regularly house inmates from outside counties include Rutherford and Henderson. It has been our observation that when Jail Administrators try to establish initial bed space in other counties, they are often unsuccessful and do not follow up appropriately. However, when the actual SheriffÂ?s communicate with each other about the problem, they are often able to provide relief. As far as this office is aware, Cabarrus County still does not have any inmates housed in other counties and it is unclear why they cannot accomplish this. Please respond with an explanation on why your county is having such a problem establishing bed space in other counties.
Implementation of EHA (Electronic House Arrest): This prospect has apparently been communicated incorrectly. Our office is well aware that the Division of Adult Probation and Parole is not charged with the responsibility of monitoring pre-trial inmates on EHA. However, there are numerous Sheriff Departments around the State that have established their own EHA Programs to help alleviate overcrowding. These EHA programs are staffed by Sheriff Department Personnel or Criminal Justice Partnership Personnel (CJPP) in monitoring pre-trial inmates including non-support cases. Some of the counties that have established their own EHA Programs include Randolph, Pitt, Brunswick and Moore.
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In summary, Cabarrus County needs to make immediate steps to alleviate their overcrowding. The two previous recommendations, if aggressively pursued, would probably be able to reduce the average daily population by at least 60 inmates. Cabarrus County cannot continue to plan for future relief by way of anticipated bed space or construction plans. The liabilities that arise from chronic overcrowding are well documented. Please respond to the two recommendations noted in this memo and carefully document what communications have been made between prospective counties on the prospect of inmate transfers. Your response should be forwarded to this off ice by November 20, 2005.

If we can be of further assistance, please let me know.
Cc: Phyllis Daw
Chairman, Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners
Honorable William G. Hamby Jr. Chief District Court Judge
Honorable Erwin Spainhour, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge
Ms. Roxann Vaneekhoven, District Attorney
Lieutenant David Allred, Jail Administrator

Sincerely,

John P. Harkins
Chief, Jails and Detention

So, according to Harold, John Day has been sitting on this information…keeping it from the public…there’s never been an open discussion of either transporting prisoners to other counties or using house arrest. Well, maybe he missed the Sailsbury Post article on December 29, 2004 where this was Electronic House Arrest was mentioned in an open session of the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners. As for transporting prisoners elsewhere, I direct Mr. Smith to the April 18, 2005 BOC Meeting where the Sheriff’s Department performed an assessment of the 50 and 100-mile radii determining that there was not too much to be found in the way of extra beds in jails.

So, there were open discussions about both of these “solutions”. Why didn’t John Day implement these on the spot? Well, he had about 1,000,000 reasons not to.