Speaker 1: What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to
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your support. So our sheriff. He wrote the state a letter,
a poorly written one, but a letter was written and
sent to the state to Deputy Secretary William L. Lassiter
from the desk of Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden.
I mean, he didn't use the nickname, but we all
know the nickname. So here's from the Charlotte Observer story.
Meckelberg County Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden asked the
state's Department of Public Safety to meet with him in
a public forum to discuss how they can quote collectively
move towards reopening the county's former juvenile detention facility known
as Jail North. McFadden. He sent them a letter to
DPS Deputy Secretary William Lassiter. This was sent on Halloween. Woo.
The Charlotte Observer had just reported that Lassiter and we
covered this with the Charlotte Observer story. I brought that
to you, like what two weeks ago when the Observer
did the story that Lassiter said that he was hoping
that Jail North would reopen one day. In mostly private conversations,
many in the criminal justice system have been trying to
find a way to reopen it for years. So there
are a lot of as I call them Weasley words
in that sentence. That's not a I'm not slag in
the reporter Ryan Orley on this, but like this is
the way reporters write stuff that it just it. They
are their shorthand. For like I heard somebody say this
thing or this is a rumor. Like in mostly private conversations,
many in the criminal justice system like, well, how many
a lot a critical mass? No, like is it just
two people? Is that many? How many is many? You know,
it's just it's it's vague, it's obtuse. So anyway, when
I was a reporter, I just steer it away from
that sort of thing. It's it's like some people say, well,
who are some people, right, people that don't want to
go on the record and just trying to, you know,
stir the pot. So and I'm not saying that that's
happening here. That's just always the These are always the
questions I have because I'm always trying to discern motive
from people why they're talking to the media about a
particular story while refusing to give their name, right, So
I have to know, like, what is their incentive in
discussing this stuff. Are they motivated by just like an
attempt to you know, blow the whistle on something, or
are they motivated by some other thing? What's their incentive?
Anyway back to the story. Others, including a collection of
advocacy groups known as Children's Alliance, as well as District
Attorney Spencer Merriweather, also believe something important was lost when
McFadden closed the facility in twenty twenty two. So let
me go to the letter I shall give you. Oh,
let me see here, because I have two sound bites
of not my fault McFadden because remember a week ago,
four days ago, actually he appeared on Breaking with Brett
Jensen here on WBT at six o'clock. He was in
studio for the whole hour, and I pulled these soundbites,
but I never got to them because I just ran
my mouth on all sorts of other things that he
had said, so I never got to the jail North quotes.
So I do have two sound bites from his interview
with Brett. You know, let me do the letter first.
Let's do the letter, Dear Billy, William L. Lasseter. But
he put Billy in parentheses. I don't know why you
would do that, Like, if you're going to use the
informal Billy, if that's what you know him as, just
say Billy, don't put it in parentheses, and then his
full name. But whatever, it doesn't matter. I know I
may be a little overly critic. There will be other
opportunities for me throughout this letter. He begins, thusly, I
am writing to request a public forum to address the
ongoing issues and confusion surrounding the possibility reopening of the
Mecklenberg County Juvenile Detention Center. Okay, so you missed a word.
There should have been the possibility of reopening. So there's
your first problem. The recent back and forth conversations, as
all conversations are back and forth. Otherwise it's just a monologue.
But maybe I'm being too picky there. The recent back
and forth conversations and conflicting media reports have created a
misleading picture of why this facility remains closed. This has
caused concern among community members, families, stakeholder myself. Dude, would
you say this has caused concern among myself? Would you
say myself? You would not. It's just me and me.
It's caused confusion for me anyway. And also, stakeholders should
be plural, but mainly the staff here at the Mecklenburg
County Sheriff Office that deserve a transparent and fact based
conversation that may result in a final decision, at least
for the moment. It is he God one, two, three,
four typos in one sentence. And I'm not even getting
into the lack of commas here. Okay, it's just like
run on sentence after run on sentence. I don't know
who's writing this letter, but good lord, it should be
in a final decision. At least there should be a
t It's not at least that's like renting, you know.
This forum should provide the public and all stakeholders with
clarity on Colan and then he has a list of
bullet points. The true reasons behind the facilities closure and
the barriers we face to reopening. The staffing shortages and
recruitment challenges currently impacting operations. The specific resource and financial
needs necessary to reopen safely and effectively. The role of
Mecklenberg County in potential financial or operational support. A clear
plan and timeline to move forward. Okay, So those were
the bullet points. There were five of them. So the
Forum should provide the public and all stakeholders with clarity
on those five things. It goes on to say the
discussion would be limited to two hours to allow for
a focused and productive conversation. You put it on a clock.
That's how you stay focused, right, Okay. Our goal is
simple to bring clarity. It should be simply let me
make a note there. Our goal is simply to bring clarity, accountability,
and shared understanding to this issue so that we can
collectively move toward reopening the facility responsibly. My office is
prepared to assist with coordination and logistics if all parties
are willing to provide the funding and true resources that
it would take to reopen this facility. I also believe
that we need to discuss all options openly, but most
of all, we must clarify to the public, stakeholders and critics,
the housing of juveniles not capitalized is a DJJ state
mandated issue and not a mandate nor statutorily mandated requirement
for the sheriff's office. A loss should be Also, the
ball is not in my court because the court belongs
to DJJ, but our team willing to help bring the
win to our juveniles should not be capitalized, and mainly
those here in Mecklinberg County. He wants a show trial,
That's what he wants. He wants to deflect the blame
away from him and onto the state. Because again, his
name not my fault. McFadden tells you all you need
to know about this issue. This is not his fault.
None of this is his fault. The Meckliberg County Sheriff
is willing to he is referring to himself in the
third person. The Mecklinberg County Sheriff is willing to assist,
but not carry the full burden alone by recruiting, hiring,
and training the necessary staff to reopen the juvenile detention center.
Please let me know your availability for these proposed dates
at your earliest convenience, and he's wanting the forum to
take place either this week or next week, so a
public forum. By law, according to the Charlotte Observer, juvenile
jails are a state responsibility, but Lasseter has argued the
Mecklinberg County benefited from Jail North. It's now been sitting
empty basically since November twenty twenty two. He said he
has tried to buy it, lease it, or get McFadden
to reopen it in some capacity, but nothing has budged
the sheriff. See the sheriff is focusing only on the
last of those three options. McFadden keeps pointing to like, Oh,
I you know, I'll do it, but you know I
got to have all of the money to do it.
You got to give me the true resources instead of
the fake resource. I need the true resources, and I
need all the funding, and I need all the support.
What are you going to do for me? What are
you going to give to me? That's all he's focused
on in all of this because, according to Lasseter, and
this was in the Charlotte Observer story from like two
weeks ago, the state has offered to buy it, so
you don't like, just just sell it. Then if you
don't want to run it, you don't want to do it,
just sell it to the state. You want to let
the state operate out of it and staff up, then
let them lease it and let them worry about staffing it.
But he cites the staffing issues like, well, you know,
the state's going to have a problem staffing it just
like we do. But that's their responsibility. Then that's on them.
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it's the Coast Guard. Happy Veterans Day to all veterans.
Thank you for your service. Thank you to your families
as well. Let me jump over to the WBT text
line driven by Liberty Buick GMC. This is from John. Yes,
doesn't the property like Jail North fall under the control
of the county not just the sheriff. I thought the
county commissioners have final say over the use of the property. Well, yes,
that was one of the reasons why they closed. It
was because they had such staffing shortages and at the
Central Jail, so they closed Jail North to move all
those people to the Central jail during COVID. That was
the recommendation from Dina Diorio, then county manager. So yes,
I would think the county commissioners have a role to play.
Maybe they're one of the stakeholders not mentioned specifically in
the poorly written letter to the state by the sheriff.
By the way, yeah, this is from Corey, who says
I'm not a big I'm not big on AI writing
reports for people, but clearly this McFadden letter is an
example of where it would have been appropriate. Yes, I
think so. So, like, what are the possibilities on this
poorly written letter? He wrote it, right, that's number one.
He could have written it. Number two, somebody else could
have written it. But then that would mean like you
would have you know, did he then proofread it or not?
There's a secondary decision there, So did somebody else write it?
If so, did he proofread this? That's almost worse than
if he did not proofread it, although that's bad too,
which is also bad if he wrote it, or maybe
third option, he dictated it to somebody else, in which case,
then did he proofread it afterwards? Did they proofread it?
Did anybody proofread it? Or no? Either way, like none
of these five options, well, the three options and then
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mentioned I've been sitting on a couple of sound bites
from Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden. He appeared on
Breaking with Brett Jensen on I think the seventh, the
sixth or the seventh, so like five for four or
five days ago, and you can go get that at
the WBT dot com podcast app or at the at
the website, and he did. They talked a little bit
about a lot of things, but they talked about the
Jail North, the juvenile detention center that has been closed down.
So here is here's the first thing that McFadden had
to say about that.
Speaker 2: Well, everyone, let me as they say a level set.
That's a new word, so let me not everyone believes
that it is the Mecklenburg County sheriff responsibility for the
juvenile detention center to be reopened.
Speaker 1: Okay, no, we don't actually not everybody believes that. I know,
that's a convenient framing for you because it allows you
to make this argument that it is not your fault. Right,
So I know that's convenient framing. But not everybody believes
that the state can play a role. And that's why
the Observer did this story when the state said, hey,
can we buy the facility from you? But McFadden is
saying no.
Speaker 2: Apparently, we are not statutorily mandated to run the detention center,
which means that it is up to the Department of
Juvenile Justice to find bed space for these jiles.
Speaker 1: We just so happened to agree with them.
Speaker 2: We just so happened wanted to work with them back
in twenty nineteen, and we were happy to take on
that responsibility. Now let me fast forward quickly. We are
still happy to take on that responsibility. But you have
to bring more to the table than you're bringing. And
so why the Juvenile Detention Center is closed. Well back
when everyone was resigning from their job with the Great Resignation?
Speaker 1: Was that when you got elected? Is that what happened?
It was the Great Resignation? Or was that after that
was a response to the Black Lives Matter fiery but
mostly peaceful riots. Is that what happened when everybody started quiting,
was it COVID? Is that everything was COVID right again,
all of these things not his fault. The great resignation,
not Gary's fault. He had nothing to do with any
of this.
Speaker 2: The state decided to begin to target us on expections,
not expections, inspections is what he meant to say there,
I think.
Speaker 1: Again, not his fault. It's the state that was targeting
him under Roy Cooper, under a Democrat governor, Democrat Department
of Public Safety, and the state. And he's been claiming
this for years that he was unfairly targeted for inspections,
not that it had anything to do with like all
of the people that were dying in the jail, which
he doesn't like people saying, oh, death at the jail.
He didn't like people saying that either, because we're supposed
to wait for the autopsy to come out before we
can report that somebody died at the jail. According to him,
that's what he That's what he said. That's what he
told Brett. I played that clip the other day. The
state wasn't targeting you for inspections because they don't like you.
The state is required to inspect your facilities, particularly when
somebody dies in your custody, and when there are complaints
or reports filed about the way you are supervising.
Speaker 2: The jail called several people in Raleigh who had no
answer for me, and I said, it is unusual in
the inspections that we're getting at this particular time. And
so when they send these expections to Raleigh about Jail Central,
let me get this straight about Jail Central or Downtown,
they always shift that to the counter commissioners and you know,
the public officials, and then they do a knee jerk
reaction of sure, if you've got to do something, you've
got to do something. And so this goes on for
quite some time, and then it got down to you
must do something. So the only way that we could
increase the staffing at Jail Central Detention Center Central is
to close the juvenile Detention Center. And when we did that,
that's when everything started. But that's not when everything started.
You had people dying at the Jail Central and the
state was saying, you don't have enough personnel for adequate monitoring, right,
and so then they're like, okay, well, we got to
get more people in here, but nobody wanted to go
work for not my fault, macfadden apparently, no, no, no,
it's the great resignation. So nobody wanted to work there,
and so the county manager recommended the closure, and he
recommended the closure of.
Speaker 1: The juvenile jail facility. Okay, I understand that argument. That
does not address you turning down the state's offer to
buy the facility, though I'd love to get an answer
on that.
Speaker 2: State of North Carolina, the Apartment of Juvenile Justice is
responsible and is mandated to find bedspace throughout the state
for the juveniles.
Speaker 1: And this is a long conversation.
Speaker 2: So as we know that there were many backdoor conversation,
back room conversation and discussion, we decided to ask them
which we're going to still find a date to have
a public hearing, and we put everything out on the
table so we won't look like the bad guys.
Speaker 1: There it is, so we won't look like the bad guys.
So he's got an excuse for everything. Well, I hope
somebody at this forum or hearing or whatever the hell
he wants to call it, I hope somebody asks him
and makes him address it. Why not just sell the building.
Then you don't even have to worry about the maintenance
and the upkeep and all of that. No capital replacement
costs nothing. Just sell the state the building and then
let them run a juvenile jail facility. Why not just
do that? Nothing is his fault. We don't want to
be the bad guy, right, so we are not made
out to be the bad guys. All right, if you're
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Speaker 3: Yesterday right the way.
Speaker 1: Sheriff Gary now my fault. McFadden was on with Brett
Jensen last week. They were talking about Jail North, the
juvenile jail that was closed down. Here is the question
about why not just let the state lease the facility
or buy it? And here's why. I mean they can't
fulfill the BDS.
Speaker 2: I mean they can't fulfill the employment Why because Cobaris
County Detention Center has a thirty to forty percent vacancy rate,
So they can't even fill the vacancy rate in their
current buildings, So why should I give them a building
that we could We are definitely still using and we're
definitely occupying it.
Speaker 1: That you can't feel that is an inaccurate statement. It's
not an inaccurate statement. It's not your problem. It's not
your problem. If the state wants to buy it and
they say they can try to staff it up, then
let them do. So what's the issue here. It's like
it's like he doesn't want to incarcerrate juveniles. That's it.
It's almost as if, right, why not just sell the building?
They can't.
Speaker 2: They can say they rinted, but can they fill the
employment No? Can they fill it with detentionis offices?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: If you could, why do you have thirty to forty
percent vacancy rate at a current facility? So what I
said about that, close that facility and allow me to
hire everyone from that facility. We won't have to vet
them out.
Speaker 1: We don't have.
Speaker 2: I mean, sure we have to look at them, but
we will bring all of them over. So that will
save millions.
Speaker 1: And I've heard a lot. I've never heard a good
thing about the situation up in Cabar's counting.
Speaker 2: There is no good situation about Cabaras County if you
want to be accurate about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've never heard a good thing about that.
Speaker 2: So we and I want to talk about this, and
this is why we will have public hearings forums to
talk about it, because we're going to lay everything out
on the table. Surely have some people who believe that
they can fix it. Sure they can throw around some numbers.
Sure that somebody say, well, I'm going to open it,
but do you know what it takes to open it.
We know what it takes to open it, we know
what to how to run it.
Speaker 1: There you go. He wants control. I want to control this.
I'm trying to control all of this stuff and he
doesn't want to give it up. I'm going to make
the decision. I think you can't handle it. And by
the way, this idea, close Cabaris and move everybody down.
Cabaris is bigger. Caberis has like fifty percent more beds
than jail North does. That's why his idea, as the
state called it, is infeasible, or as I call it, stupid.
That's a dumb idea. Why would you reduce the number
of total beds. Meanwhile, he wants he wants all of
those state employees to be transferred under his control, which
then of course creates like more problems because of the
way he runs his office. With a toxic work environment,
You're going to have a bunch of people start quitting
there too. This is just it. It boggles the mind,
it really does. Let's see here, I thought, John said,
why isn't the county? Why is sorry? Why isn't it
the county manager's decision or the county commissioner's decision to
sell the building? I've never heard of a sheriff having
decision making powers over that kind of a disposal of county property.
The county provides the building to the sheriff to run
the jail as he sees fit, but it's up to
the county to provide the building. Likewise, it seems if
a building is sitting empty, then the county should be
able to decide what to do with it and not
the sheriff. That would be correct. So where's the county commissioners?
All right? That'll do it for this episode. Thank you
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