A judge who ordered Yadkin County commissioners to appear in court Friday to explain why the county hasn’t built a new jail canceled the hearing Tuesday, a day after the commissioners agreed to move forward with plans to build the jail.
The resolution, approved 3-1 on Monday, said the county plans to contract with a Charlotte firm to build the jail “without delay on the board’s part.”
Superior Court Judge John Craig III declined to comment to Carolina Journal. He had told county commissioners in November that he could fine them, remove them from office, or jail them until they agreed “to properly carry out the duties of their office and get the jail project underway without further delay” on a site about four miles from the county courthouse.
Commissioners were notified by telephone Tuesday that the hearing had been canceled. Michael Ferrell, an attorney for Commissioner Kevin Austin, said Craig canceled the hearing because the resolution signaled that the commission was committed to move forward with construction.
“I think the court is well aware that legislators make this decision,” said Ferrell, a former county attorney for Wake County who met with Craig and three other attorneys for about two hours on New Year’s Eve. “He acknowledged that how to fix the problem is up to the legislative branch — in this case the county commissioners — as long as something gets done.”
“I’m ready to go,” said Commissioner Tommy Garner, one of three commissioners who favor building the jail outside the county seat of Yadkinville.
Austin, who has opposed building the jail outside the county seat, said he was glad that the hearing was canceled.
“I’m relieved that the threats the judge made to remove people from office and fire them and throw them in jail are resolved now,” Austin said.
But Peggy Boose, a plaintiff in two lawsuits against the county over the site of the jail, said she doesn’t think the dispute over where the jail should be built is over.
“I don’t think it’s the ending,” she said.
Plans for the jail need to be adjusted because of questions from the state Department of Health and Human Services about smoke evacuation equipment, and one of the two lawsuits against the county is on appeal.
Antiquated lockup
The current jail, built in 1968, is antiquated, with cells opened by brass keys and only cold water available in much of the facility. The state Department of Health and Human Services has said all but one of the cells in the 29-bed jail are unfit for prisoners.
Craig has been prodding the rural county in the northwestern part of the state to build a new jail and has held hearings on its failure to do so in December 2006 and August 2008. County commissioners voted in 2006 to build a new facility but haven’t because of legal and political squabbles.
The judge had also thrust himself into a disagreement among county commissioners about the location of the jail. Should it be built in downtown Yadkinville, which is the county seat and where the jail is the hub of activity, or outside town where the county already owns land and has spent more than $500,000 on architectural fees and property surveys? Craig had prohibited a county committee studying the jail issue from meeting to discuss an alternate site, saying that its plans “would have the same effect of staging a coup.”
Judicial Commission complaint
Yadkin County resident Larry Long said he has filed a complaint with the state Judicial Standards Commission about Craig. The commission wouldn’t confirm that a complaint had been filed.
“He does not have this authority the way I look at it,” Long said. “If he has this authority, every county in this state is in trouble. I think he stepped way out of line with what he can do.”
Bob Orr, the executive director of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional
Law, said such actions by a judge usually would be prompted by a lawsuit filed by someone challenging the conditions of a jail.
“It’s pretty unusual where the judge unilaterally starts driving the commission,” said Orr, who is also a former state Supreme Court justice. “[This] may be OK, but I don’t know.”
Unhealthy conditions
The state Department of Health and Human Services has been citing the jail for years for deficiencies ranging from inoperable toilets to fire safety problems. A grand jury that inspected the jail in 2006 found it inhumane. In August 2007, the state closed the jail, which didn’t have air conditioning, because temperatures inside were above 90 degrees. The jail reopened, but most of it was shut down again in August 2009 because of plumbing problems, with many cells lacking hot water.
Kim Clark Phillips, former chairwoman of the Yadkin County Board of Commissioners, said Craig once sent an inmate to the prison in Raleigh instead of the county jail because the conditions were so bad.
“He was furious,” Phillips said. “He said, ‘I’m not sending anybody there.’ These are people awaiting trial. Most of them are nonviolent criminals. Most of them are minor crimes.”
County commissioners voted 3-2 in November 2006 to build a new jail, and Craig has been monitoring their progress, or rather lack of it.
Commissioners decided to build an $8.2 million, 150-bed jail on land the county owns near Hoots Road, about four miles from the courthouse. They raised taxes to pay for the jail and got bidders for the project. The low bidder is Edison Foard of Charlotte which submitted a bid of $6.6 million.
The Austin Company, located across the street from the jail site, and 13 individuals sued the county, saying the land was zoned improperly for a jail. Kevin Austin, vice president of The Austin Company, is the chairman of the Yadkin County Republican Party and was elected a county commissioner in 2008. He has abstained from voting on the jail plans but remains an opponent of the Hoots Road site.
Austin said employees at his family’s company, which makes control cabinets and electrical supplies, are worried about visitors to the jail.
“Do they steal someone’s catalytic converter and then buy a crack rock?” Austin asked. “I don’t know how well-founded these concerns are, but they definitely are concerns. It could lead to our company leaving the area.”
Zoning dispute
In July 2008, Judge Richard Doughton of the Yadkin County Superior Court ruled that the rezoning of the jail was improper, but county commissioners voted again to put the jail on the Hoots Road site. Fifteen people filed another lawsuit in December 2008 to challenge the second vote to rezone.
They paid legal fees in part by hosting chicken and barbecue dinners and holding a raffle and yard sale.
“Once the first lawsuit was filed, it was a power struggle,” said Boose, a plaintiff in both lawsuits. “They [the commissioners] didn’t want anybody to oppose their decision.”
Craig decided the second lawsuit, which upheld the rezoning of the property. The plaintiffs asked Craig to recuse himself from the case, citing his involvement with the relocation of the jail, but he refused, writing that the plaintiffs “have not met their burden of demonstrating objectively that grounds for disqualifying the undersigned Superior Court Judge actually exist.”
Orr, the former state Supreme Court justice, said Craig may not have had a conflict in the case.
“If the question is whether the new zoning is valid or not valid, I don’t know that there was a conflict,” Orr said. “I don’t know that another court would reverse him.”
Downtown Yadkinville has few businesses, and the courthouse is the hub of the downtown.
Garner said he is pushing for a government complex on Hoots Road.
“The courthouse is overcrowded, doesn’t have enough room,” Garner said. “Judge Craig said something that made me think he was on the verge of condemning the courthouse.”
Heather Graham, the daughter of County Attorney Jim Graham, owns about 1½ acres near the jail site, but Jim Graham said that didn’t factor into the county’s decision about where to put the jail.
The Yadkinville town board passed a resolution to keep the jail downtown, saying property values could decline if county services are moved out of town.
Sarah Okeson is a contributor to Carolina Journal.