The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office “improperly released” two jail inmates charged with violent crimes in one week – one from the Guilford County jail in downtown Greensboro and one from the jail in High Point. The Office takes responsibility for the first one but has stated that the second improper release was due to a mistake by the court system.
Now the higher-ups in the Sheriff’s Office are stressing the need to follow proper release procedures.
Here’s an internal memo sent to detention officers and others in the chain who have the responsibility of making sure the inmates who are let out of the jail are actually the ones who are supposed to be let out.
It stresses, among other things, the importance of using fingerprint scanners in the jail to verify an inmate’s identity before sending him or her out into society.
The internal memo reads, “There are a series of procedures that MUST be followed when booking an inmate in and releasing them. Particularly those related to the PictureLink fingerprint enrollment and verification process. These processes are established to ensure that accurate and verifiable information is available to confirm the proper identity of an individual prior to their release.”
“No step within the process should be overlooked or skipped and everyone must SLOW DOWN and take their time when performing these tasks.
“If a computer device is not functioning properly then you must submit a Service Request to have the issue resolved. In the case of the PictureLink fingerprint devices, there are 5 total within the Booking and Release Booking areas that can be utilized to enroll and verify prints.”
The memo goes on to say, “Everyone must do their part to ensure that the safety and SECURITY of the facility is maintained. If you have any questions or concerns related to this please let me know.”
Former longtime Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said there’s no excuse for not using the fingerprint scanners before releasing someone.
Barnes said there is one excuse coming out of the Sheriff’s Office that is very valid: The jails are understaffed, and the guards are overworked, rushed, doing double duty and taking required overtime hours due to the constant vacancy problem.
Still, Barnes said, the release of inmates back into society is one part of the job where corners absolutely can’t be cut.
Barnes said he thinks it was a mistake for the jail, under Rogers, to move from unremovable inmate ID bracelets to ID cards. The first inmate who escaped last week did so by assuming the identity of another inmate after acquiring his ID card and presenting it to officers. The ID card used belonged to an inmate who actually was supposed to be released that Monday.
“The armbands were attached so they couldn’t be removed,” Barnes said of the time when he was sheriff. “I don’t know why they went to the cards.”
Barnes added that, if an inmate did manage to remove his or her armband, that inmate would be punished. The former sheriff said moving to ID Cards just allows another possible point or failure into the pre-release ID process.
He also said that, when he was sheriff, a supervisor would always have to sign off on a release. That supervisor would make sure all of the proper pre-release identification steps had been taken.
Barnes was also critical of the fact that the Sheriff’s Office didn’t make the public aware either time when they discovered that men charged with violent crimes were improperly released.
When WXII News asked the Sheriff’s Office spokesperson why the Office denied that an inmate had escaped, they got the following response: “This was an active investigation. There are times when releasing information might compromise an investigation and apprehension.”
Barnes said the answer is nonsensical.
“That’s Bull s—” Barnes said. “The public should have known about it.”
Late night on Monday, Sept. 23, the department explained further in a follow-up press release: “Releasing information to the public at that juncture would have compromised the investigation and apprehension of Diaz-Gomez [the first escapee] by alerting him that his scheme had been discovered and that Deputies were searching for him in the Winston-Salem area.”
The former sheriff said he knows where Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers can find at least one more detention officer to help out – behind the steering wheel of Rogers’ car. Many observers of the Sheriff’s Office have been critical of the fact that, with a lot of vacant detention officer positions, Rogers has a driver to take him wherever he goes. Barnes and other sources said Rogers’ driver is an armed detention officer.
That’s one more person, Barnes said, who could be working in the jail at the job he was initially hired to do.
You get what you vote for. Especially this November. Use your vote wisely but VOTE!
Did you bother to ask Barnes about the circumstances on the jail escapes under his watch? Of course like everything wrong that happened under Barnes he quickly blamed some low level officer that was not part of his inner circle of cronies. The hot air continues to blow.
Forrest you sound like you’re a fan of skip and cowboy danny. Keep drinking the democrats koolaid
The detention officer who drove Danny around attends conferences and only works 16 hours monthly inside the jail, which is enough to keep his certification. He hasn’t worked full-time at the jail since he was hired 4 yrs ago, working only 16 hours per month. He also has his own police vehicle and has made traffic stops while Danny was in the vehicle. It’s one thing driving Danny around and Danny’s vehicle but when he operates his own personal police vehicle and behind the wheel during these stops to me makes these routine traffic stops. I think there’s some laws being broken
Gary, we can only hope.
The prisoner knew he was a hunted .man the moment he stepped out of the jail. The excuse that it would impede his capture is a bogus one. The public being aware of his presence could have helped in his recapture.
All old man Barnes does is bitch and bloviate. Run for office again instead of being a keyboard warrior, BJ!
Forrest you sound like you’re a fan of skip and cowboy danny. Keep drinking the democrats koolaid
Hey big city, I know you’re a big danny fan but you’ve not said anything about the stupidity going on in the sheriffs department. What’s up Kitty cat got your tongue
Who would have ever thought that this would happen in the county we live in?
Straight up lying the press! You can count what is left of Simply The Best on your fingers and toes I’m afraid. The rest are a sad lot. We’re still looking for that Positive Change we were all promised.
At this juncture it will take nearly a decade to undo the mess. You have people “handling” the Sheriff’s affairs in the Agenda Team Meetings who love to hear themselves talk, but have no idea if it’s day or night, what season it is, where they parked, who all they did wrong to get where they are or what lie the told last to convince their Sheriff they were worthy of anything more than sweeping floors at McDonalds. Rogers has a habit of promoting folks who get themselves in predicaments and get shot at, when in fact the camera footage from one incident is used around the globe to teach new recruits about situational awareness and what not to do when encountering a suspicious subject alone at night.
You only need a pulse and a certain amount of melanin to get hired now. A skirt doesn’t hurt either. They occasionally sprinkle in an occasional Caucasian male hire just to say it’s not a racist practice, yet it is the very definition of the word. I worked with a lot of great folks there back when it was in it’s prime. Now it’s gone from a good place to work, to a bad place to work. Translate that any way you wish, for the men & women of the Sheriff’s Department who work hard everyday, they deserve better! I feel sorry for the recruiters being forced to scrape the bottoms of the barrels and the recruits who don’t know what they’re walking into. There are lots of places hiring nowadays, choose wisely if this is the kind of work you want to do.