RANDOLPH COUNTY, N.C.-- The Randolph County jail is so overcrowded that inmates are sleeping on the floors. The capacity is 210 and there are currently 286 inmates in the jail.

  • The Randolph County Detention Center is severely overcrowded.
  • The county approved a jail expansion project, and is ready to begin work.
  • It will cost roughly $23 million and will double the size of the detention center.

"We're having to send people out to other places to keep them, other jails,” said Major Phillip Cheek, who runs the jail. "It's a very dangerous situation. I mean safety for your staff, safety for other inmates. It really makes you nervous, because you want to do a good job, and you have to step over others just to get to do the job. Literally step over. It's tough.”

"It's incredibly too crowded," one inmate told Spectrum News. “The floors are taken up, the spaces in the middle, at the columns. I mean just all the way around the room you can just see it. We live on top of each other."

But relief is in sight. The county approved a jail expansion project, and is ready to begin work.

"It's going to be roughly $23 million when it's said and done. It may be more than that, it may be less than that,” said Randolph County Sheriff, Greg Seabolt.

It will double the size of the detention center, bringing capacity up to 420.

"We've always been at full capacity. But since the drug problem is in such a bad state in Randolph County, it's time to build. And we need to build quickly,” Seabolt explained.

Ironically, some of the money to pay for the work on the jail came from the inmates themselves. The jail payphone generated about $94,000.

"We've never seen an invoice that high from a service that we provide at the detention center. And the reason for that is it's so packed,” Seabolt said.

The project breaks ground on August 9 with an estimated completion of June 2022. Construction will happen in six phases.  Seabolt hopes to add around 40 additional detention officers by the time it is finished. Right now, the county has approved a budget for eight new hires.