When courts are back in session on Tuesday, some people convicted of misdemeanors may serve time in county jails rather than state prison because of a new state law that goes into effect on Sunday.
House Bill 642, which is state law 192 from the 2011 session, says people who are convicted of misdemeanors that are sentenced to 90 to 180 days in jail — three to six months — might serve their time in county jails if their county agrees to the program. Felonies and DWI offenses are excluded. If someone is convicted of a misdemeanor and sentenced to more than 180 days, they will go to the NC Department of Correction for processing.
Catawba County will not opt into the program because of lack of space at its detention facility, according to Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid.
“We just don’t have the space,” he said. “We’ll be transporting to jails that will be participating.”
Alexander County Sheriff’s Office said it, too, will not participate because it doesn’t have room.
“We’re renting beds now from Ashe and Caldwell counties,” said Chief Deputy Tod Jones.
Alexander County has 27 beds in its jail, and rents a total of 30 to 35 beds from the other two counties on average, Jones said. It pays $45 a day per person to rent that space, he said.
The county is currently building a new jail, which will house 165 inmates. It’s scheduled to be completed in October 2012.
“We’ll give another look (at the misdemeanor law) when the new facility is completed,” Jones said.
Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office will house people convicted of misdemeanors, but hasn’t yet worked out the details, said Capt. Marc Jardon.
“We’ll participate in some form or fashion, but we haven’t decided if we’ll be accepting other inmates from other counties,” he said. “We have a choice to not hold others.”
The Caldwell County Detention Center has 185 beds in it, and Jardon said the facility averages 180 to 190 people. He said implementing the new law will not impact the number of inmates that comes from Alexander County because there is a contract in place to accept them.
The new law says if counties opt into the program, they must include the cost of housing, supervision, transportation, medical and any other costs, which will be covered by state money only.
Counties will be reimbursed at a cost of $40 per inmate per day, according to an official with the NC Sheriffs’ Association, which oversees the program and is quoted in an Associated Press article. About half the detention centers in the state have signed up to participate in the voluntary program.
The NC Legislature passed the law in an effort to save the state money. Housing an inmate in state prison costs $64.59 a day, according to the Associated Press article. This measure is estimated to save $33 million a year.
Jardon said the new program will cause a few problems at the Caldwell County detention center.
“It will impact us. Maybe we will have to go some place else to house people,” he said. “The people are going to still be there. It’s not the state’s problem, it’s going to be a county problem.”
A phone call to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office was not returned.
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