Report: County jails in North Carolina have safety issues

A brand new report from Incapacity Rights NC says North Carolina’s county jails endure from an absence of oversight.

A state Division of Well being and Human Companies division inspects jails for inmate supervision and well being, overcrowding, sanitation and hearth security. A crew of three individuals within the DHHS Division of Well being Service Regulation is accountable for reviewing all 109 county jails.

Incapacity Rights NC examined inspection reviews from 2017 to 2019. It discovered 41 jails failed each inspection over these two years. Solely 15 services handed all checks, in line with the report, and 86% of all failures had been on account of “building/sanitation points,” equivalent to an absence of fresh showers or working HVAC programs.

Usually, in line with Incapacity Rights NC, jails fail inspections for a similar issues time and again.

“In 211 cases, a facility failed an inspection for the precise cause it failed the earlier biannual inspection,” the report stated.

In keeping with the report, inaction by sheriffs has led to inmate deaths in Vance, Rowan, Richmond and different counties.

The DHHS Secretary has the ability to shut jails which can be thought-about harmful to employees or individuals in custody. When a jail fails inspection, the native sheriff should devise a “plan of correction” to deal with the issue. The Division of Well being Service Regulation will then approve the plan.

The Incapacity Rights NC report says DHHS wants extra employees and funding to deal with jail questions of safety absolutely. The report compares the enforcement of security guidelines for hospitals and healthcare services with these for county jails.

“When inspecting these services, DHSR has the authority to levy numerous fines and to right away order security violations to be corrected earlier than leaving the premises. Against this, when a jail fails an inspection, there are not any fines levied or speedy penalties for jail directors. The state doesn’t require jails to rapidly deal with security violations, endangering many lives,” the report stated.

The Division of Well being and Human Companies has not responded to media requests for feedback on the report.

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