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File photo by Alex Boerner
Demonstrators protested against conditions at the Durham County Jail earlier this year.
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Chief District Court Judge Marcia Morey summed up my thoughts pretty well during a September 15 town hall on the Durham County Detention Facility.
After a lengthy discussion of what the jail is and what leads to someone being incarcerated—in which there was a lot of yelling and flying accusations and general distrust of the system—Morey succinctly said: "This is Durham."
Holy crap was she right. Nothing exemplifies this city more than residents airing their discontent in public forums (or anywhere really).
These complaints are nothing new. They've been the focus of activists and have been brought up to the both the city and county leadership. Some movement has been made to change certain aspects of the jail, but problems still persist, according to those in attendance. And it is time that the county allow for an independent investigation.
There's conflicting narratives here—the sheriff's office says there isn't a problem, but inmates and those who were previously incarcerated beg to differ. Agency reports from inside the jail show very few infractions, but inmates complain of poor conditions. Sometimes it's hard to filter out the noise and determine what side is right. But it's no longer about which side is right—it's about what is just. An independent investigation fits that bill.
(To watch the full forum, click here.)
Morey knows the system well and she said Since 2009 the population in the jail has decreased significantly (but still, on any given day, there can be more than five hundred people locked up). "Our criminal dockets have gone down,” Morey said. “No one is sure quite why.”
There's also a demographic issue: people of color comprise 70 percent of the population; only 20 percent are white and 8 percent are Hispanic. According to the 2010 census, Durham is 42.5 percent white, 41 percent African-American, and 14.2 percent Hispanic or Latino.
"It doesn't mirror who we are as a city," Morey said.
Putting people in jail is costly. Major Paul Martin with the sheriff's office said it costs $110.19 per day per detainee. According to the online jail population log for Durham, there were 522 people in the jail on September 21. That means taxpayers spent $57,519.18 per day at the jail. Population fluctuates. In 2014, the average daily population was 514 detainees. Using that figure, it cost Durham County taxpayers $20,672,745.90 to house detainees that year. The average population count for 2015 wasn't readily available, but Martin said in 2015 taxpayers paid over $21 million.
Martin said a lot of the "discussion" about the jail—read: activists’ complaints—in the past couple of years was really dissatisfaction with the entire criminal justice system. Even so, there are some obvious issues the sheriff's office has had to grapple with, including inmate deaths.
Health care in the jail is run by a contract company, Correct Care Solutions. Martin said health care in the jail last year cost $3.8 million. The latest CCS contract—it has been contracting with the county since 2014—signed this summer, came to $3,090,566, down from the previous contract, $3,353,242.
But CCS doesn't have exactly have a clean record. Counties across the country—and including some in North Carolina—have seen inmates die because of the care provided by CCS. Jennifer McCormack, who was suffering with an opioid addiction in 2014, had a heart attack while in a cell at the Forsyth County jail. Her family is suing CSS, accusing the company of denying McCormack medication she was prescribed.
(To see all the Durham County-related contracts, click here.)
So, what are the detainees complaining about? Lots.
While the National Institute for Corrections found that the jail was improving after it visited the facility in April (and county officials inspected the jail and found few violations), critics are still vocal about conditions inside of the jail and how inmates are treated. And let's not forget the death of Matthew McCain in January. There was also the revelation that an inmate's suicide in 2013 was preventable. And unlike the state prison system, detainees who work various jobs—including kitchen and laundry work—are classified as volunteers and not paid.
This is of course, on top of the thousands of grievances lodged inside the jail a year. Here's just a sampling from this year:
Anyway, the the complaints being lodged are real, and it seems as though they're falling on deaf ears.
Members of the Inside-Outside Alliance and the Human Relations Commission have received inmate letters detailing allegations of mistreatment. Some of the letters are curated online. But Martin has questioned whether the letters were real.
"Just because someone writes a letter, doesn't mean it's true ... there's a grievance process," he said.
Calls again were made to have an independent jail investigation. And maybe that call shouldn't fall on deaf ears. The complaints keep coming in but governmental agencies that do the investigations say there is little to be worried about. So, yeah, maybe it's time to just let the independent investigation happen, once and for all.
[pdf-1] [pdf-2] [pdf-3][pdf-4][pdf-5][pdf-6]
After a lengthy discussion of what the jail is and what leads to someone being incarcerated—in which there was a lot of yelling and flying accusations and general distrust of the system—Morey succinctly said: "This is Durham."
Holy crap was she right. Nothing exemplifies this city more than residents airing their discontent in public forums (or anywhere really).
These complaints are nothing new. They've been the focus of activists and have been brought up to the both the city and county leadership. Some movement has been made to change certain aspects of the jail, but problems still persist, according to those in attendance. And it is time that the county allow for an independent investigation.
There's conflicting narratives here—the sheriff's office says there isn't a problem, but inmates and those who were previously incarcerated beg to differ. Agency reports from inside the jail show very few infractions, but inmates complain of poor conditions. Sometimes it's hard to filter out the noise and determine what side is right. But it's no longer about which side is right—it's about what is just. An independent investigation fits that bill.
(To watch the full forum, click here.)
Morey knows the system well and she said Since 2009 the population in the jail has decreased significantly (but still, on any given day, there can be more than five hundred people locked up). "Our criminal dockets have gone down,” Morey said. “No one is sure quite why.”
There's also a demographic issue: people of color comprise 70 percent of the population; only 20 percent are white and 8 percent are Hispanic. According to the 2010 census, Durham is 42.5 percent white, 41 percent African-American, and 14.2 percent Hispanic or Latino.
"It doesn't mirror who we are as a city," Morey said.
Putting people in jail is costly. Major Paul Martin with the sheriff's office said it costs $110.19 per day per detainee. According to the online jail population log for Durham, there were 522 people in the jail on September 21. That means taxpayers spent $57,519.18 per day at the jail. Population fluctuates. In 2014, the average daily population was 514 detainees. Using that figure, it cost Durham County taxpayers $20,672,745.90 to house detainees that year. The average population count for 2015 wasn't readily available, but Martin said in 2015 taxpayers paid over $21 million.
Martin said a lot of the "discussion" about the jail—read: activists’ complaints—in the past couple of years was really dissatisfaction with the entire criminal justice system. Even so, there are some obvious issues the sheriff's office has had to grapple with, including inmate deaths.
Health care in the jail is run by a contract company, Correct Care Solutions. Martin said health care in the jail last year cost $3.8 million. The latest CCS contract—it has been contracting with the county since 2014—signed this summer, came to $3,090,566, down from the previous contract, $3,353,242.
But CCS doesn't have exactly have a clean record. Counties across the country—and including some in North Carolina—have seen inmates die because of the care provided by CCS. Jennifer McCormack, who was suffering with an opioid addiction in 2014, had a heart attack while in a cell at the Forsyth County jail. Her family is suing CSS, accusing the company of denying McCormack medication she was prescribed.
(To see all the Durham County-related contracts, click here.)
So, what are the detainees complaining about? Lots.
While the National Institute for Corrections found that the jail was improving after it visited the facility in April (and county officials inspected the jail and found few violations), critics are still vocal about conditions inside of the jail and how inmates are treated. And let's not forget the death of Matthew McCain in January. There was also the revelation that an inmate's suicide in 2013 was preventable. And unlike the state prison system, detainees who work various jobs—including kitchen and laundry work—are classified as volunteers and not paid.
This is of course, on top of the thousands of grievances lodged inside the jail a year. Here's just a sampling from this year:
Anyway, the the complaints being lodged are real, and it seems as though they're falling on deaf ears.
Members of the Inside-Outside Alliance and the Human Relations Commission have received inmate letters detailing allegations of mistreatment. Some of the letters are curated online. But Martin has questioned whether the letters were real.
"Just because someone writes a letter, doesn't mean it's true ... there's a grievance process," he said.
Calls again were made to have an independent jail investigation. And maybe that call shouldn't fall on deaf ears. The complaints keep coming in but governmental agencies that do the investigations say there is little to be worried about. So, yeah, maybe it's time to just let the independent investigation happen, once and for all.
[pdf-1] [pdf-2] [pdf-3][pdf-4][pdf-5][pdf-6]
