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Resolution No. 2011 -09 <br />RESOLUTION IN OPPOSITION OF HOUSING MISDEMEANANTS AND FELONS IN <br />COUNTY JAILS <br />WHEREAS, The N.C. Legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee on Justice <br />and Public Safety is considering a plan that would move misdemeanants and felons <br />currently housed in state prisons to county jails; and <br />WHEREAS, County jails are designed as short -term detention facilities and are not capable of <br />replicating the safety and rehabilitation requirements as prisons, which are designed as long -term <br />punishment facilities; and <br />WHEREAS, Housing prisoners would require county jails to incur the expense of extensive staff <br />training and resource development to properly manage this new inmate category; and <br />WHEREAS, Moving misdemeanants and felons to county jails would shift all liability of these <br />prisoners to counties, who are ill equipped to meet the additional services and medical treatment <br />required of this population; and <br />WHEREAS, Data collected by the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners indicates <br />this action would deflate county budgets by at least $30 million statewide; and <br />WHEREAS, Cabarrus County would be required to spend approximately $3 million annually to <br />house these misdemeanants and felons, of which there is no current funding source; and <br />WHEREAS, Housing misdemeanants and felons at the county jail would immediately cause <br />overcrowding at the newly constructed Cabarrus County Jail, which was designed to sustain the inmate <br />population for the next 20 years, thereby creating an urgent need to construct anotherjail; and <br />WHEREAS, This imminent overpopulation at the county jail would jeopardize the safety of jail <br />staff and inmates by causing cramped living conditions, which is known to perpetuate conflicts among <br />inmates. <br />NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners does <br />hereby strongly oppose any plan to pass down to counties the cost and liability of housing <br />misdemeanants and felons by moving these inmates out of state prisons and into county jails, and calls <br />for the Joint Appropriations Committee on Justice and Public Safety to reject such plans in the interest <br />of public safety. <br />Adopted this the 4"' day of April, 201:1. <br />11. Jky 0ite, Sr., Chairman <br />Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners <br />Attest: <br />I<ay oneycut , ne Board <br />Attachment number 4 <br />G -6 Page 240 <br />