Forum on juvenile jail with Sheriff McFadden, NC official results in few answers
When Sheriff Garry McFadden spoke about Mecklenburg County’s old juvenile jail at a forum Tuesday night, he had a frequent line: “I wish it was open today.”
McFadden again said he needs to hire 96 detention staff, not including nurses, mental health professionals and others, before he could reopen Jail North.
The sheriff had few answers — or offers — for how he might do that.
“We just need a concrete proposal, ‘cause I can’t respond to what I don’t know,” state Department of Public Safety Deputy Secretary Willliam Lassiter told The Charlotte Observer after the two-hour forum. The discussion was held at McFadden’s request at the Valerie C. Woodard Community Resource Center. Officials and members of the public attended.
McFadden opened the juvenile jail in 2019 but closed it just three years later to alleviate a staffing shortage at uptown’s adult jail. Advocates, people working in the criminal justice system and community members have lamented its closure since.
Now, teenagers charged with crimes get sent elsewhere. That’s often to an overcrowded facility in Cabarrus County.
Vocational and educational programs were lost with the closure, too. District Attorney Spencer Merriweather has said teenagers charged with crimes are more likely to miss their court date because they are being kept further away.
McFadden said he organized Tuesday night’s conversation to “correct ongoing misconceptions” about why the facility closed, and what would be needed to reopen it, a Dec. 19 news release announcing the discussion said.
“I think that it moved the needle a little,” the sheriff said after the forum.
Tuesday’s discussion included a question and answer session, which turned into several attendees opining about the criminal justice system more generally, along with other topics.
“People are going to vent. A lot of people have emotion. A lot of people have just never been heard, so I knew that was going to be a problem,” the sheriff said.
Frank Crawford with Children’s Alliance, a network of groups that advocate for children, asked McFadden to return to more formal conversations with stakeholders about Jail North. Advocates have pushed for the facility to reopen for years.
“We have been having conversations with the county about the county maybe having a role in running it,” Crawford told the Observer after the meeting. “They have not said, ‘No.’ The previous county manager said, ‘No.’ The new county manager said, ‘Let’s talk about it.’”
The Observer reached out to County Manager Michael Bryant on Wednesday.
Jail North has become a political issue. Two of McFadden’s opponents in the March primary race for sheriff, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Sgt. Ricky Robbins and former detention officer Antwain Nance, have said they will prioritize reopening it if elected.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.