Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden on Wednesday pointed to worsening overcrowding at the county’s main detention center in uptown Charlotte as the main reason to reopen Jail North, its second detention facility, in what the sheriff said is a situation that has reached a crisis point.
The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office said there are more than 2,000 people currently housed at the uptown detention center, with nearly 300 sleeping in overflow areas.
Jail North, which previously served as the county’s juvenile detention center, has been closed since 2022. The sheriff’s office says Jail North is expected to reopen in early August as the agency plans to hire about 50 additional detention officers.
McFadden has previously said that reopening the facility as a juvenile detention center was unrealistic due to staffing shortages. WFAE asked what makes this moment different now, and he pointed to the severity of the overcrowding.
“There’s a crisis," McFadden said. "There’s an emergency. We’re going to sacrifice. We’re sacrificing our staff now. We’re going to sacrifice my staff to aggressively hire people.”
After the interview Wednesday morning, McFadden walked WFAE through the uptown detention center.
Inside one overcrowded housing pod, plastic beds lined the floor of the common area. The pod is designed to hold 53 people; at the time of WFAE’s visit, 81 people were inside.
One person housed there told WFAE that bathroom access and phone use are limited because so many people are assigned to the same pod.
