The Wake County Sheriff’s Office Detention Division manages three detention facilities, the only such facilities that house adult detainees in Wake County. The Wake County Detention Annex and the Wake County Detention Center are both located on Hammond Road, approximately halfway between the cities of Raleigh and Garner. The third facility is located at the John H. Baker, Jr. Public Safety Center at 330 South Salisbury Street in downtown Raleigh. The three facilities have a total bed capacity of 1,312.
Approximately 400 full and part-time staff provides health care, security and supervision services for the detainee population. Private vendors operate Food Services and Commissary Services.
The detention operation at the John H. Baker, Jr. Public Safety Center receives all newly admitted detainees. In the last twelve months, the detention operation had admitted over 32,000 detainees. Approximately 1/3 or 12,000 of these admissions bonded out almost immediately or received conditions of release from a magistrate that permitted the detainee to leave the detention facility and spend their pre-trial period in the community. The in-house detainee population fluctuates considerably. In the last six months, the detainee population has fluctuated from a low of 1,123 to a high of 1,580.
Wake County Sheriff’s Office facilities have some policies that differ from most other detention facilities nationwide.
- Inmates are not served coffee while incarcerated.
- Inmates cannot smoke. No tobacco products are allowed inside the jail.
- Inmates can exercise inside and outside their cells; however, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office does not provide inmates with weights or body building facilities.
- Sentenced inmates work in housekeeping and maintenance inside the detention facilities.
- Each inmate is served a nutritious meal three times a day. A professional dietician approves the menu that meets the standards set forth by the State of North Carolina. To ensure no religious edicts are compromised, we do not serve pork.
- Medical staff is on duty 24/7.
Sheriff’s office staff along with Wake County officials are currently working with architectural firms in planning a second construction phase at the Wake County Detention Center. This phase would add an additional 672 beds and should be completed in early 2013.