Buncombe County opens jail addition

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Buncombe County has recently opened its jail addition, built on what used to be a parking lot right next to the Buncombe County Detention Center behind the county courthouse.

The Citizen-Times has a photo gallery of the jail addition here. I assume that means they’ll have a story in Sunday’s newspaper about it. 

Several months ago, WLOS reported that the opening of the jail addition had been delayed due to problems with water pressure in the building and a faulty elevator. The jail was due to open in January of this year, so it’s opening is seriously overdue.

Buncombe County’s main detention center has been running over capacity for the past four or five years. Sheriff Van Duncan said on a radio talk show recently that the county has permission from the state to sleep inmates on mattresses on the floor in the jail, which has a capacity of about 360 inmates but has been housing about 400.