Commissioners, lawmakers meet
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 19, 2017 12:48 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Wayne County commissioners meet with legislators representing the county Friday morning at the Lane Tree Conference Center.
During their annual planning retreat in January, Wayne County commissioners worried that county taxpayers are picking up the tab for medical care for Cherry Hospital patients jailed for committing a crime at the hospital.
Friday morning they voiced those same concerns to state Sen. Don Davis and Reps. Jimmy Dixon and John Bell.
Commissioners did not offer any specific cost estimates or how often such cases occur.
Statewide, sheriffs are also concerned about the number of jail inmates who have mental problems, Sheriff Larry Pierce said.
The legislators listened, but offered no advice or possible solutions.
Sen. Louis Pate and Rep. Larry Bell did not attend the breakfast gathering held at Lane Tree Conference Center.
County Manager George Wood said when somebody at Cherry attacks a member of the staff, the sheriff's office is called.
"Then the problem is if they have a lot of medical issues, it's on us," Wood said. "We feel like where you host a state institution that the local county ought not have to pay for that because they have the ability to house them appropriately and restrain them like we do."
Actually, the Goldsboro Police Department normally takes calls at Cherry Hospital and does the investigation for any assaults there, Pierce said.
"They turn it over to the SBI if they need further assistance because it possibly relates to an employee or something," Pierce said. "I didn't even realize we were taking their medical issues from injuries."
"What I think he (Wood) is talking about is if you have got a patient out there, who assaults one of the employees and then the patient gets arrested and put in your motel," County Attorney Borden Parker said. "Then we are stuck with all of those costs
"It is the same thing at the prisons if the prisoner assaults a guard or another prisoner. Instead 0f keeping him at the state's prison, they bring him into the jail awaiting for the trial."
The charge probably would be a misdemeanor, and the Department of Correction is not going to house a misdemeanant that has committed a crime until he is reverted back to the department during the trial, Pierce said.
Also, a person would not be at Cherry if they didn't have problems, Parker said.
"And you have a lot of people in your jail who have been released from Cherry and can't get home," he said.
Sheriffs statewide are "really concerned" about mental problems in their detention facilities, Pierce said.
"In fact we are currently going to start a program, it just as started this month, we are doing a teleconference with psychiatrists into our jail to try to eliminate some of the problems we are facing," Pierce said. "There are a lot of people in our facility who have mental problems who really don't need to be in a criminal detention area. That is statewide, probably nationwide.
"We discuss that at every sheriff's conference that I go to -- what are we going to do about the mental patients in our jails with all of the hospital and facilities that have closed down or are not accepting."
Pierce said he did not know how to approach the original subject of Cherry Hospital patients charged with a crime and taken to the county jail.
"If they commit a crime, until they are actually sentenced, they are on me," Pierce said.
Bell asked what the cost is on the county.
"Is this an every-other-year problem, a couple-times-of-year problem, or are you dealing with this every other week?" Bell said.
Bell said he was asking specifically about someone being attacked at the prison or who the county is having to house.
Pierce said he does not have any statistics.
"I don't think it is that widespread," Pierce said. "I would have to find out from my detention staff on that, but I am not familiar with a whole lot of it."
Bell asked Wood if he knew what the bill is.
"I don't know, but it can be substantial," Wood said. "When we farm these people (inmates to other jails because of jail overcrowding), it is $50 a day if we have to farm out to another county. That would probably be good benchmark for it."
The medical portion of the bill would be even more, Parker said.
"If you end up having to send them as a safekeeper because of their problems, then the bill really starts skyrocketing," Parker said.
Currently the county has an inmate, who is charged with murder, in safekeeping at Central Prison in Raleigh, Wood said.
The inmate can't be bailed out, he said.
"He's got no stomach, and so he is costing us a fortune," Wood said.
It is not so much the number of inmates as it is the amount of medical bills each person has, Pierce said.
"Like I said, that one person is going to be thousands an thousands of dollars," Pierce said. "It's not unusual for them to come in and have appendicitis or heart problem or anything like that that we have to do something with them. It all falls back on us."
"I guess what we were looking at is those counties that host state institutions, if there were some sort of relief on that -- those really expensive cases," Wood said. "We don't mind the nickel-and-dime stuff, but some of these can drain us.
"Another, I guess a corollary to that is when you host something like Cherry that impacts our DSS (Department of Social Services), too. We have had cases were they get released back out into the community, and if they need a guardian what happens is the default at Cherry is they appoint ours.
"What we want them to do is appoint one for their county. I mean if they are here, but they are from Halifax County, we think it ought to go back to Halifax. It is an expense to us."
Wood said county DSS staff have had discussions with Cherry Hospital officials on that issue.
"I think they are doing better now, but their response was, 'You do a good job so we just default with all of you,'" Wood said. "It is kind of like no good deed goes unpunished."
Chairman Bill Pate said those other counties probably counter that Wayne County reaps the benefits of Cherry Hospital being located here.