Federal inmates return to the Mecklenburg Co. jail after three year pause

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Federal detainees with pending cases in our area will now be housed in the Mecklenburg County Jail in Uptown and the newly re-opened Jail North.

With detainees closer to their lawyers and to where they’ll be tried, officials hope the process will move faster. Federal funds will be used to house the detainees and will help fund jail operations. Mecklenburg Co. Sheriff Garry McFadden says, “I think this is a huge step. Programs, they’re gonna be involving programs. We are gonna help them become better citizens when they get back to wherever they come from.”

US Attorney for the Western District of NC Russ Ferguson says, “We pay as the federal government a per inmate per night fee, almost like a hotel. And we can pay that to a facility in Kentucky or a facility in Virginia or a facility in South Carolina, or we can pay it to Sheriff McFadden. And that money will now go here to the Sheriff.”

Federal detainees were last held in Mecklenburg County in 2023. Since then, they’ve been held in 14 different facilities across several nearby states.