<div>MONROE – David Williams urged colleagues on the Union County Board of Commissioners to move quickly once they hear back from consultants researching the need for a new jail. The sheriff’s office approached commissioners earlier this year about how the jail was breaking down and becoming overcrowded. Leaders considered putting a new jail on a 2024 bond referendum but opted to update a year-old study to determine the appropriate inmate capacity. Meanwhile, Union County is sending inmates to the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office to prevent overcrowding. Union County pays $70 per inmate per day under an agreement approved in March. The sheriff’s office requested an additional $100,000 for inmate transfer. Commissioners approved the request Oct. 7, putting the total amount at $142,000 through June 2025.“We need a new jail,” Williams said. “That's what this item screams to us. The jail that we have now was built in the 1990s when our county population was not six figures. It was under 100,000. We've done a lot of growing since then.”The jail’s current capacity is 264 inmates and Williams said some days recently the jail has had more than 300. Williams pointed to the consequences to running out of space for inmates, including hard decisions made by judges, magistrates and the district’s attorney’s office. There’s also the possibility a judge may order Union County to build a new jail, which is what happened with the current jail. “I think that there's some agreement, at least on this board, that it's not so much that we don't need a new jail facility,” Commissioner Brian Helms said. “I think that what we have to be careful with is making sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes that we made in the past. I think that if you enter into this type of a project, we have to make sure that we know what type of needs we have and whether the project is addressing those needs adequately with responsibility to the folks that ultimately pay the bill and that's the taxpayer.”</div>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Union County increases budget for inmate overflow

MONROE – David Williams urged colleagues on the Union County Board of Commissioners to move quickly once they hear back from consultants researching the need for a new jail. The sheriff’s office approached commissioners earlier this year about how the jail was breaking down and becoming overcrowded. Leaders considered putting a new jail on a 2024 bond referendum but opted to update a year-old study to determine the appropriate inmate capacity.