CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mecklenburg County's work-release jail program is set to close its doors at the end of June after 18 years.
A change in state sentencing guidelines has diverted many inmates from county jails to state prisons, and dwindling numbers in the unit across the street from the main jail led to the decision to close it.
"When the numbers aren't there, the money's not coming in, then decisions have to be made," Chief Deputy Felicia McAdoo said.
Closing the facility could save the county about $2.5 million a year, but it will also eliminate programs that have helped ease the transition from jail into the community, McAdoo said.
"Yes, it's killing me inside," said Dorian Johnson, who has worked with inmates in the work-release program for most of the last 18 years. "I've seen people go from the bottom to the top, and the idea that this option is not here is troubling."
One of the last of those people could be Rodriguez McCain.
He has been in the program for about three months. Through the program, he got high school diploma through Central Piedmont Community College and a job to support his family.
"I have the opportunity to go to work and still provide and take care of my responsibility," McCain said.
Like other inmates in the program, McCain helps pay for the cost of his stay in jail. He is one of only nine inmates left in the program, and with no revenue from inmates coming in, McAdoo said officials had to face the reality that the program could not support itself any longer.
Jail statistics show that inmates who go through the work-release program are much less likely to be arrested again -- about 30 percent.
That is compared with more than 70 percent of most inmates, but McAdoo said they have to face fiscal reality.
"We understand what has to happen, but the effects we don't know yet," she said.
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