The Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office would like you to go to jail.
Seriously.
The new Lenoir County Jail hosts an open house on Saturday and Sunday, allowing local residents to see their tax dollars at work in the facility. The jail is open for viewing 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.
“We’re going to give tours of the jail,” LCSO Chief Deputy Chris Hill said. “The public will actually be able to see the entire jail before we actually occupy it with inmates.”
Lenoir County currently has to pay other counties more than $3,000 a day, or more than $1 million a year, to house inmates for which it has no space. Not only would the new jail give room to house all of the county’s prisoners, there’s anticipated to be enough space to house prisoners from other counties and generate revenue.
Lenoir County Sheriff W.E. “Billy” Smith wanted to see the jail finished before he retired. He’s leaving office on March 31, and Hill will serve as the interim sheriff until the next election.
“We’ve had time to operate it for a while and work some of the bugs out,” Smith said in February. “It was a project that was started and I want to see it finished.”
The jail’s been plagued by delays and was supposed to be up and running last year. But now, the sheriff’s office believes it’s ready to go.
“We’re shooting for some time around the 15th of March, is what we’re looking at, provided we don’t have any setbacks before then,” Hill said.
Some staff will be moved from the old jail and Lenoir County Courthouse to the new facility. The jail administration and staff will relocate, along with the magistrate’s office, small claims court and house arrest program.
That will ease an overcrowding problem among the LCSO detectives, who will take over the vacated offices.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.
Breakout Box:
Tours of the new Lenoir CountyJail
130 S. Queen St., Kinston
Saturday, 9 a.m.-4p.m.
Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
