NC jails fail inspections, leave vulnerable inmates unsupervised, advocacy group says

Many of North Carolina’s sheriffs in recent years failed to provide the proper level of sanitation or supervision in their jails, according to a new report from a nonprofit watchdog organization.

Disability Rights North Carolina on Thursday released the findings of an investigation into the state’s 109 jails and whether they complied with state regulations.

The group’s analysis found that nearly 40% of the jails failed every inspection from 2017 to 2019. Inspectors with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services had repeatedly cited more than half of the jails “ for deficiencies in supervision, capacity, fire safety, and construction and sanitation issues, the report said.

“These findings are deeply concerning,” Luke Woollard, a lawyer for Disability Rights, said in a statement. “The conditions we found are extremely dangerous for all people in these overcrowded, under-supervised, unsafe jails, especially people with disabilities. The degree to which dangerous jails have been allowed to continue operating despite failing inspection after inspection is astounding.”

The state’s health department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Eddie Caldwell, spokesman for the North Carolina Sheriffs Association, didn’t immediately provide a comment.

The Division of Health Service Regulation, a division of the state health department, is responsible for regulating jails. The advocacy group called on state lawmakers to strengthen the division’s ability to regulate jails. The group called for an expansion of the division's three-person inspection team. It also called on state health officials to better enforce existing safety regulations.

“DHSR is the only agency at any level with authority to hold jails to minimum safety standards,”

Virginia Knowlton Marcus, chief executive of Disability Rights, said in a statement. “If they don’t have the tools or the staff to do that, we are leaving jails without any effective oversight.”

Jails are different from prisons in that they often confine people who have been charged, but not convicted, of a crime. Up to 19,000 people are awaiting trial or serving low-level sentences in North Carolina jails at any given time, Disability Rights says.

Many people who are jailed suffer from mental illnesses or disabilities, and the group says jail conditions can exacerbate those issues. “Ninety percent of people in jails return to our communities, and it benefits all if they return as healthy as possible,” Disability Rights said in an executive summary of its report.

Multiple people died in jails that state regulators had cited for failing to supervise inmates, according to the report. Among the group’s findings:

• State investigators found missed supervision rounds at the Rowan County jail between 2017 and 2020. Four people died in the jail during that same period. The deaths were attributed to drug overdose, medical reasons and suicide, Disability Rights reported.
• In the Edgecombe County jail, eight incarcerated people died between 2017 and 2021, “including four who died by suicide while state regulators repeatedly cited the jail for failing to supervise people as required by law,” the group said in the report.
• Over a three-year period, the Orange County jail remained open despite citations for overcrowding and a sprinkler system that wasn’t up to code.