One of the biggest components of a long-term Orange County project is now operational: a new detention center.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office shared on Tuesday, April 5, it had officially booked its first inmate at the new center that is part of a northern campus for Orange County government facilities. The building, which broke ground in late 2019, is a 144-bed facility that replaces the old detention center off East Margaret Lane in downtown Hillsborough originally built in 1925.

The Orange County Northern Campus also is home to the Bonnie B. Davis Agricultural Center, which opened last August, and a new base for Parks and Recreation operations. The space, at 1200 U.S. Highway 70 just northwest of Hillsborough, is the culmination of a property purchase the county government made in 2018 for a new jail.

“We dreamed of this day for almost two decades,” Sheriff Charles Blackwood said in a release about the new detention center. “Although the former jail underwent several renovations over the years, it remained inadequate for modern needs. It featured subpar medical and laundry facilities, an insufficient kitchen, and aging locking mechanisms which were difficult and expensive to maintain.”

“The new facility,” Blackwood added, “includes an integrated magistrate’s office and better technology to improve the ability of those housed there to communicate with loved ones and legal counsel. This facility will allow our staff to more efficiently serve the safety, security, and human service needs of those placed into our custody.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said the transfer of 70 people from the old detention center to the new facility took weeks to plan.

“No one on our staff had participated in such a move before,” said Blackwood, “given that our former facility is 97 years old. Therefore, we named the operational plan ‘Blue Moon.’ Troopers with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and members of a State Bureau of Investigation task force assisted us, and we are grateful for their help.”

At the moment, no major plans have been decided for what the East Margaret Lane jail will be used for. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said county staff and elected officials will soon begin discussions about its future. Until then, the sheriff’s office will use space under the detention center for storage.

 

Photo via the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

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