Sheriff Tackles Repeat Offender Problem

Repeat offenders are a problem for law enforcement officers everywhere, but in Mecklenburg County, Sheriff Chipp Bailey is trying to find a way to stop the cycle of recidivism.

More than 2,300 inmates are packed into Mecklenburg County’s jail, and many of them will return after their sentences are served. Hiawatha Beam was one of those who returned. In trouble often, and eventually jailed for stealing a car, Mead stepped into a jail-based training program.

“Everybody that knew me back in the day when I was doing my dirt and stuff, they see me now and they don’t think it’s me because I changed. This class helped me change,” she said.

But along with successes come stories of hardened criminals who these programs aren’t helping. Thursday, Eyewitness News’ Chopper 9 flew over a police chase that ended with the capture of three men suspected of breaking into a home. Each has been in and out of jail multiple times, even though none of them are more than 20 years old.

Repeat offenders like these consume a lot of police and community resources.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Deputy Chief David Graham said, “It’s very frustrating for police and it’s very frustrating to everybody in the community that sees the same faces arrested over and over and over.”

Those chronic offenders make up perhaps a third of the jail population. Bailey said the only program for them may be prison.