Abby Cavenaugh

By Ena Sellers, Duplin Journal

KENANSVILLE – Denise Mitchell, Duplin County Sheriff’s Office Jail Administrator was recently elected to serve as the North Carolina Jail Administrators Association vice president. She is the first Duplin County official to serve in the distinguished role.  

“It’s an honor to represent the state of North Carolina,” said Mitchell, who has been serving with the Sheriff’s Office Detention Center Division for the last 25 years. 

“She has worked tirelessly to serve the citizens of Duplin County at the Detention Center. I am proud of her many accomplishments over the years,” said Sheriff Stratton Stokes. “She is a role model that our youth and adults alike can look up to and I feel honored to work with her.” 

Mitchell handles the planning, directing and supervising of the jail’s personnel, daily activities, and administrative functions. Despite the massive undertaking, Mitchell remains humble and is looking forward to seeing the new jail project come to fruition.  

While construction of the jail has been approved, it is still unknown if the new construction will feature a 236-bed facility or a smaller one with a capacity of 156 beds. 

“I know it takes time, but we’ve been needing it for the last 15 years or more,” said Mitchell, explaining that the jail is in constant need of repairs, and they lack space to accommodate a growing population of inmates. Another challenge they are faced with is recruiting qualified workers. 

“For the last, maybe, two years we’ve been working shifts trying to keep up our day-to-day jobs,” said Mitchell. 

It is no secret that overpopulation is a growing challenge at the local jail. The constant overflow of inmates, many with mental health issues, is more than the small, outdated facility can accommodate. 

But space is not the only concern at the jail. According to Mitchell, the number of inmates coming in with mental health problems continues to increase. This means those individuals must be kept isolated until evaluated, a task done for everyone’s safety as some can become combative. 

“When (you have) a small jail, you got only a few single cells and mostly what is in a single cell is mental health,” said Mitchell. “…by the time you get those sent out, we have more coming in. It’s a struggle day-to-day trying to place people for their safety.” 

“It’s been tough… for the last 10 years,” said Mitchell, who hopes to see mental health return to normalcy, “not just in Duplin but all jails in general. We got people sitting here that need mental health (assistance).” 

The Duplin detention facility is one of several other jails across the state affected by backlogs in the mental health system. 

“We have a person who has been out of jail, probably waiting for about a year to go to Cherry Hospital,” said Mitchell. Cherry Hospital is a correctional facility hospital located in Goldsboro, serving Duplin among 37 other counties. Currently, the hospital has a waitlist for inmates who go in the order in which each county sent the request. Duplin County is number 100 on the list. 

“They are limited on how many they can take at a time… We had another person who has been waiting for a year, so he had to go in front of the judge because he had served his time, so the judge looked at his case and let him out… Now we got another one waiting,” she explained. “So many counties have the same problems, so they have to put people on a waiting list.” 

“This is the longest I’ve seen a person wait,” said Mitchell, explaining that in the past the wait time was about a month or less. “But now, it’s been like this for the last 4 or 5 years.” 

The big problem with this situation, she explains, is that mental health cases must be isolated and because of the limited space, it holds a bed space that can be used to house someone who should not be out on the streets.  

“They have to stay at the jail until they are accepted at Cherry Hospital, or their case is reviewed by a judge,” Mitchell explained.  

Currently, they have two people waiting to go to Cherry and five others who have not been to court yet. 

The Wallace-Rose Hill High School graduate was appointed jail administrator in 2007 and has been a board member of the NC JAA since 2016. Mitchell holds an Associate Degree in Criminal Justice from James Sprunt Community College. She is a life member of the Criminal Justice Society and a member of the American Jail Association. Mitchell also volunteers to help troubled teens and women who suffer from addiction and homelessness.

Two confirmed cases of parvo forced the Duplin County Animal Shelter to close its doors to dog intakes and adoptions for three weeks. On October 23, Duplin County Animal Services announced the situation on its Facebook page. “Due to two positive cases of parvo, the shelter will be closed to visitors and intakes for dogs for 21 days,” the post reads. “No visitors will be allowed in dog confinement areas.”

Both of the dogs were already quarantined for bites, Duplin County Animal Services Supervisor Joe Newburn told the Duplin Journal. “But as a precaution, we shut the shelter down — just the dog areas,” he added. “Parvo doesn’t affect cats.”

Parvo is a highly contagious virus among dogs that can be spread by direct contact with an infected dog or indirect contact with a contaminated object, like a food or water bowl, collar, leash, or even the hands and clothing of people who have handled infected dogs, according to the website for the American Kennel Club.

“Parvo is really, really contagious,” Newburn said. “I can say that it’s transmitted by feces. That means you can be outside, step in it, and then go inside your house and transmit it to your dogs if they aren’t vaccinated.”

The Merck Veterinary Manual states that the canine parvovirus can “persist indoors at room temperature for at least two months; outdoors, if protected from sunlight and desiccation, it can persist for many months and possibly years.”

That’s why Duplin County Animal Services staff acted quickly to clean and fully disinfect the shelter, and quarantine the dogs that were in the shelter at the time of the contamination. The quarantine ended on Monday, Nov. 6, and on Nov. 7, all dogs were required to leave the shelter. “All of the [dogs] must leave the shelter, either by being adopted, rescued, or euthanized,” Newburn said, “because the shelter has to be dog-free for at least a week.”

Luckily, all six of the dogs were either rescued or adopted, Newburn said.

The shelter will remain closed for seven more days after all the dogs have left, with intakes resuming on Monday, Nov. 13. In the meantime, shelter staff were “disinfecting every day, three or four times a day,” Newburn said.

Parvo is completely preventable, with updated vaccinations. “It’s so important to get your dogs vaccinated,” Newburn said. “Very soon, we will be going around the county, giving out parvo shots like we do with rabies. Rabies is very important, but lately, we’re seeing more parvo in the county so we’re going to focus on that.”

Details on the parvo clinics will be announced as soon as they are available.

In the meantime, Newburn reminds dog owners that parvo is a very real danger. “If you take a dog to a dog park or anywhere it’s around other dogs, it can be very dangerous if they’re not vaccinated,” he said.

Certain dogs are at especially high risk for parvo infection, including puppies who are 6 weeks to 6 months old, unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated dogs, and the following breeds: rottweilers, Doberman pinschers, American pit bull terriers, English springer spaniels, and German shepherds.

“I can’t stress enough how important it is to get your animals vaccinated,” Newburn added. “Yes, it can be expensive, but if you can fix the problem with a $10 shot, it’s worth it.”

Vaccinations are available at your veterinarian’s office, or at some stores like Tractor Supply Company. “If you’re not sure if your animal is up to date on vaccinations, please check with your vet,” Newburn urged.

Duplin County will soon have a new animal shelter, and once it’s open, it will have isolation areas for quarantined animals, so the shelter won’t have to shut down the way it did in this case.