Letter to the editor: If it happens twice in the same week, it’s on the way to being a habit
If it happens twice in the same week, it’s on the way to being a habit.
The Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office has, according to its own reports in the last week, arrested two people and put them in jail here just as soon as they were released from their prison sentences elsewhere in the state. Both have drug charges.
Obviously they didn’t commit a drug offense in Lenoir County while in prison elsewhere in North Carolina. The sheriff’s office, through their investigation, was able to charge them with other incidents they were allegedly involved in while they were out. But here’s the thing — there was nothing keeping these cases from being prosecuted while these people were still in prison. They could have been brought back to Kinston, charged and processed, probably eventually had a trial or taken a plea, had more time added to their sentence, and justice is served.
But then there are no flashy headlines about someone getting arrested the day they get out of prison, are there?
How long did officials sit on this information, knowing they were going to jump on this as soon as the people were released? It’s honestly a little cruel.
So now they have new charges, and if they just got out of prison that means they more than likely have a parole violation. That’s going to make it difficult, if not impossible, to bond out. So they will sit in the jail, and if it’s like almost every other jail in the country, it’s overcrowded and understaffed. It’ll be your Lenoir County tax dollars that keep them fed and housed while they move through the court system — which barely moves.
Are these two inmates — that we know of — going to be busting budgets and straining resources? Well no, two is not going to make a huge difference. But how long do the sheriff and district attorney plan to keep this up?
Jennifer Shrader
Former Kinston Free Press Managing Editor
A brief career in county corrections
Lagrange, GA
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