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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 The constant overflow of inmates, many with mental health issues, is more than the small, outdated facility can accommodate.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.
