The League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad Jail Study

Guilford County Prison Farm. See photos here.

In May LWVPT members visited the Guilford County Prison Farm in Gibsonville. Lieutenant Jack P. Johnson and Sgt. Davis provided our walking and riding tour of the 800 acre facility.  The County Prison Farm was originally the Black Prison built by the inmates in 1934.  The quarried stone was gathered from the surrounding are used to build the first building.  The population of the facility is males 18 years or older  without violent offenders.  90% of the people in the facility have substance abuse problems. 

The facility has multiple one story buildings used by the inmates for shelter and work. 

The capacity is 130 people.  There are 39 full time employees who supervise the inmates through glass enclosed observation stations.  Doors are locked and walkie-talkies are used to communicate by the staff. 

On weekdays there are 70-80 inmates on the farm.  On weekends about 40 more come. The weekenders are those who are serving their sentences with weekend time so they can still hold jobs or go to school.  About 90% of the weekenders are DWI offenders.  There are no juveniles or women on the farm.

All inmates at the farm are sentenced; there are no pretrial inmates at this time.

This is a work farm.  There are 350 head of cattle and four bulls.  There is hay cutting and rolling into bales.  There is deer corn raising and selling, $5 for a 50 pound bag.  There are two buildings for storage of cloth items (towels/sheets), a building for tool repair, a wood working shop (Adirondack furniture); a shop for cement garden furniture; a shop for repair for machines (lawn mowers and cars/trucks) and several large green houses.  The laundry is below the cafeteria.

Jobs include working in the furniture shop, the kitchen or the concrete shop, gardening and working in the garden shop.  Inmates earn “time off” credits for working. The furniture, garden and concrete shops bring in money to the system.  The farm earns money each year.  The sheriff’s office is trying to think of ways to make the farm space earn more. A driving range has been suggested--in Minnesota they make $200,000 per year from the driving range. The driving range is NOT for the inmates, but for the public.

One surprising task is stray animal pick-ups.  During our visit the farm had a horse that had been there for awhile.  If they don't find the owner the horse will be put up for adoption

The prison farm receives more requests for work projects than they can handle due to lack of staff to supervise inmates.

Walter Johnson and the Family Life Council teach life skills and parenting classes, but at this time there is no GED program.  There are computers in the dorms, but they have trouble getting volunteers to come and teach classes. There is no drug program now, but  George Coates of the Guilford County Substance Abuse Coalition is working with the inmates.  Jeff Harwood of the Lawndale Baptist Church also teaches at the farm.  (Sgt. Davis believes that the folks who accept Jesus show the highest chance of not returning to their old ways).

A nursing station is available. Inmates pay $10 for a doctor or dentist visit.  The nurse is on duty a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening.  The doctor provides some services in exchange for farm workers doing some maintenance on his land which is right up the road.

Visitation is on Saturday and Sunday from 1-3 pm in a special glassed in sunroom.  Picnic tables are used for seating.  Inmates are allowed to touch their wives to their forearms only.  Inmates may hold their children.  Some inmates are there for weekends only to serve out a 30 day conviction for their DWI time.  Other inmates are there much longer.

The inmates stay in large open bright dorm rooms with high ceilings  and sleep on bunk beds.  The inmates wear colored overalls to denote their status:  yellow  for inmates who can go to uptown Greensboro, orange  for inmates who can go outside on the grounds, blue  for those who cannot go to the gate, and red for those in solitary confinement.   All inmates wear plastic sandals and socks.  There are no individual cells except for behavior problems when inmates are put into solitary confinement in a separate isolated building. 

The dorm rooms have color televisions, paperback books, checkers and chess.  Resin chairs are used but there are moveable wood tables.  There are telephones on the wall to call out with  inmates paying for their own calls.  On weekends the inmates do not have to keep their bunks made or tidy.  There is easy access to the bathroom facilities which again are dorm room style.  There is also a separate library for hard back books.  The hard back books must be read in the library. 

 There is a large cafeteria for meals.  The inmates prepare the food and wear plastic gloves and hair nets.  Outside the inmates can exercise:  volleyball, basketball and horseshoes.  State law requires that inmates in solitary confinement be allowed outside every three days for fresh air and exercise.

The cyclone fencing with barbed wire on top of it around every building help you to remember that this is a jail.