Three Wake County inmates are facing burn charges for an incident inside the jail Wednesday evening.
Erik Chobot, 26, Davion Oden, 22, and Maczavier Richardson, 21, all faces charges for burning a jail or prison and injuring personal property.
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The Wake County Sheriff’s Office says tablets at the jail were tampered with, causing them to burn and resulting in smoke and smoldering. It happened late Wednesday evening at the jail on S. Salisbury Street. No injuries were reported and there was no significant damage to any other property.
The incident comes days after WRAL News reported on overcrowding issues at the jail. The daily average jail population hit a five-year high in July at 1,778 inmates. Sheriff Willie Rowe said there were individual days when the jail population reached 1,800 or 1,900.
Capacity between the two Wake County jails is 1,574.
A former inmate said the smell in the jail is unbearable with up to two dozen men in some holding cells and no access to showers.
“There were guys there for five or six days who hadn’t showered,” JP Priester told WRAL. “If you got a weak stomach, that ain’t for you. Just know, you are going to vomit. I would rather smell cow manure than smell what was going on in there.”
The overcrowding is due in large part to changes the come with Iryna’s Law, according to Rowe. While he says he supports the concept of keeping violent criminals behind bars with no bond, he feels this could have been avoided if law enforcement was at the table during discussions about the bill with lawmakers.
“If we had this conversation ahead of the passing of the law, maybe if it was implemented July 1 when the new budget came in and the commissioners and county government could have had more time to put resources in place, but it is what it is,” Rowe said. “We’re dealing with it.”
The overcrowding issue has led Rowe to urge local law enforcement agencies to exercise discretion when deciding whom to bring to the jail.
“We’ve talked with the chiefs, and everyone’s on the same page,” Rowe said. “We understand if a person is suspected or alleged to commit a non-violent crime, one that does not warrant arrest, that they’ll continue to utilize their options, whether citation or how they handle it.”