A decade and a half ago, when the Guilford County commissioners set aside more than $100 million – after a bond referendum – to build a giant new jail in downtown Greensboro, there was virtual panic in the county that Guilford County would see a tremendous growth in jail population over the next few years.
Some jail experts predicted that, even if the county built a jail that held 1,000-plus inmates, which it did, the county’s jail system would be full by the time that new jail in downtown Greensboro was finished.
Looking back a decade after the jail panic, it turns out that the county spent much, much, more than it needed to address the problem.
The county’s latest audit shows that, for fiscal year 2022-2023, which ended on June 30, 2023, the average daily jail population was 797 inmates. That’s much less than it was a decade earlier.
In fiscal year 2013-2014, the average daily inmate population was 932.
In fact, with the exception of a one-year period at the height of the pandemic – fiscal year 2020-2021, when the county cleared out the jails as much as possible due to health concerns – the jail population in the most recent fiscal year, 2022-2023, was lower than it has been over the past decade.
During the fiscal year most affected by the pandemic, the average daily inmate population was 696. Otherwise, the population has remained roughly in the 800 to 900 range for the past ten years.
In the years leading up to the construction of a new jail – almost all county officials believed that the county’s jails would be full or near full at the time the new 1,000-plus bed jail opened in mid-2012. In those numbers, they included the Guilford County Prison Farm, with 120 beds, and the High Point jail, with several hundred more beds.
However, over the past ten years, the county has shut down the Prison Farm, drastically lowered the number of people held in the Guilford County jail in High Point – and, still, the county never comes close to using the full capacity of the 1,000-plus new jail in Greensboro, which is really not that new anymore.
Perhaps no other long-term prediction made in this century by county leaders has been so wrong.
I would take it the county leaders did not make this prediction on a whim and in a vacuum but got input from others. But I don’t know. Do you? Find out and report what went into the predictions. If the trends were going up what other alternatives did they have? Is this an isolated over prediction or did other counties and cities make the same jail population errors … though not necessarily did they build new facilities as they had enough room to accommodate.
Which county leaders are involved? Elected ones, employees?
Who benefitted from over predictions? How so?
I wish someone had the power and interest to see how much more the county and city have overspent over the years to satisfy special interest groups, friends of the council, race relations, kickbacks, contractors that please the quota, and just stupid spending. Oh I forgot. It is just the taxpayers money and we do not care how we spend it, as long as it keeps us in control. PEOPLE WAKE UP. DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE WITH YOUR POCKET BOOK IN MIND. IT IS YOUR MONEY NOT THEIRS!!!!! It is a shame that the waste is not reported and the people who know the facts are probably afraid the truth woud get them run from town.
Excellent article. Here, in this case, it seems that the shrinking prison population reflects a trend more positive than the one for which our planning overbuilt. Even if this positive trend does not hold it should increase the useful life of the facility for at least as long as our community has benefitted.
Crime is up, inmates are down. Makes sense.
Yeah, a truly investigative report would not simply report that jail population is lower, but look into why it is lower. I know you guys have to crank out some quota of articles every day, but it wouldn’t hurt to do a little digging. Maybe do a follow up report or a series of articles.
My first questions in this case would be:
Is the number of crimes the same, higher or lower as compared to 10 years ago? In this case, we can’t look at crime rates, which are crimes per population. We need the hard number of crimes since we are analyzing numbers of incarcerated people in a finite space.
Second, are sentences for similar crimes the same, harsher, or more lenient now as compared to back then? I predict this is where your answer lies. I know some crimes that used to be prosecuted are automatically dismissed now. The big bond reform push went way too far and, at least for a while, almost everyone was getting unsecured bonds, which meant they could simply sign themselves out of jail.
Which would lead to another question. How many people in the jail are serving sentences and how many are being held pre-trial? Compare those numbers now vs back then as well.
I see a lot of this type of incomplete reporting which glosses over an issue and let’s the reader jump to their own conclusions. A fully investigated article would fully inform the public without bias about the WHY of things, not just the WHAT, which is what media should be striving for. I know Rhino’s resources are limited, but hopefully you can dig a little deeper for us, your readers.
2 wants to know would be a good place to call
Theyt don’t want to put people in jail anymore. The liberals see this as a form of punishment, which is what it is.
Considering the rise of crime in Greensboro might it be hecause a significant number of criminals are either not being prosecuted or are let out with little or no bond to re-offend. So, you might say that the “Social Justice Warriors” are saving the county money that would be used to house prisoners.
Unfortunately, there is a greater cost to the community.
And yet homicides are at an all time high for the city
I’m surprised that the Rhino published your statement; however, you are correct.
Lol, they get plenty wrong and they continue to spend money like drunk sailors. Please don’t give them any ideas about an old jail.
There is no old jail. The only thing standing is the outer shell. Samet & their subcontractors were rolling right along with its demolition before the county went all racist and woke and ran them off.
Yep. That’s because liberal magistrates, judges & the district attorney would rather send thugs back home with little or no bond(s). They keep people in jail that don’t need to be in jail & send hardened thugs home to rob, rape & pillage the citizens.
Let the Police & Sheriff’s enforce the law & back them up when they do, or shut up & don’t complain when they kill hard working officers, or do something that affects you or your family.
Looks like 200 beds for the homeless! Why spend money elsewhere. Clear a floor and put homeless up for the winter!
The jail population reduction mirrors the reduction in suspensions in Guilford County Schools. Instead of suspending they just put them in In School Suspension.
You got it! It’s the libtard social justice fecks that have caused every bit of this. I know where they can shove their justice…
So in 2009 they predicted we’d need 1000 beds and built a new facility. Five years later, we had 932. That doesn’t seem irresponsible, but rather pretty accurate.
If the pandemic reduced the population to about 800 after that, how could that be described as anything but reasonably unexpected?
Not exactly.
The county paid for THREE multimillion dollar studies over a period of about a decade. The last was was in 2009. We were triple fleeced & the SJW pansy judges, magistrates & DA have exacerbated the problem.
The persons in the law enforcement and judges are buying and using drugs too and they don’t want to arrest their friends and business associates.
The modern “kinder & gentler” design of a direct supervision jail also exacerbated staff shortages. The old linear jail needed just under 20 officers to function & about 35 during the day. This newer libtard friendly facility takes nearly 50 to function properly and almost 80 during the day. Stretch that out into 4 shifts for 24 hour coverage and see if those numbers don’t add up to supervise the same number of thugs, loonies & degenerates. I get it, Barnes wanted a concrete & steel legacy – the biggest in the Greensboro skyline. That comes at a great cost whether he was misguided or not. These big multi-million dollar studies will show whoever is paying for them what they want to hear. At least Barnes tried to inject these idiots with common sense by all but begging that it be paid for with a temporary sales tax increase. No one listened. So instead you have millions in bonds, plus ridiculous school bonds to pay off. Welcome to liberal fantasy land where everything is free only it isn’t.
One of the reasons for the drop is that some of those who would have been there, have now been murdered, and now reside elsewhere.