“Our real challenge now is people are coming into the jail already with substances inside they’ve already consumed,” Miller said.īuncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams declined an interview about the latest death but did provide this statement: They’ve also started medication-assisted treatment for people in the jail experiencing substance abuse issues. In the last couple years, the sheriff’s office has installed a body scanner to check inmates when they enter the jail. They’re coming into the jail not having healthcare, not being attended to, not taking their medicine, but they got arrested, so now that burden falls on the sheriff and to our detention staff.” He said people are coming into the jail in a critical state. “Currently, they’re dealing with what society has brought to them. “My deputies haven’t done anything wrong,” Miller said. He said community factors like substance abuse and homelessness are fueling the issues he sees in the jail. We’ve contacted the DA’s office, and all the cases thus far we’ve been clear,” Miller said. “All these cases have been investigated independently by the SBI. Recent reporting into this issue from the Asheville Citizen-Times called the jail the “deadliest in the state.”
Miller wouldn’t comment further, as Frisbee’s death is being investigated.īefore this death there had been six deaths in a span of 16 months at the jail.
“I want to express my condolences to the family and make sure we put that out that this something that, for me, is very personal,” Miller said, saying they never want anything to happen to inmates, to whom he refers as clients. Within two hours he said she started acting erratically and they had to call EMS to take her to the hospital. He said due to her history, Frisbee was put on watch when she was booked into the jail.