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A detainee at the Vance County Detention Center was injured Monday afternoon in a failed escape attempt. Two other detainees were on the run for close to a week before being recaptured on June 9 in the Asheville area.
The Vance County jail is under state sanctions that, among other things, limit the number of individuals that can be housed there. Adequate staffing remains a concern for Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame, who is responsible for employees at the detention center.
Although the county oversees maintenance of the jail, it’s the sheriff who has complete authority over everything else, County Manager Renee Perry said.
Brame said the jail is housing up to 90 detainees at present. In April, state inspectors ordered that nearly all detainees be moved to other detention centers because of unsafe conditions and lack of adequate staffing at the Vance County facility.
The county commissioners are moving forward with construction of a new jail and simultaneously paying for upgrades to the existing facility.
The new detention facility has a price tag of roughly $71.2 million and is expected to take a minimum of two years to complete. Perry noted that the county currently is in the land acquisition phase; no location has been settled on yet.
The repairs and renovations to the existing jail are expected to be completed by November 2026, said Perry.
She also included a $3.34 million detention center capital reserve in the FY 2026-27 budget adopted by the commissioners earlier this month.