‘Not acting with urgency’: State calls out Vance Jail leadership for noncompliance

‘Not acting with urgency’: State calls out Vance Jail leadership for noncompliance The letter, dated October 2, is the third official notice from the NC Department of Health and Human Services within the last two years. Posted 10/19/2026, 8:02:00 PM Updated 10/19/2026, 9:59:49 PM Related only builds its inside a shadow root after a client-side fetch. When the embedded tag data carries a clean href, render a plain light-DOM anchor instead. That data is a snapshot from when the story was tagged, so a tag can lack an href even though a page exists now; those keep and resolve in the browser as before. An href with a query string is api-tag’s /tags/?tag= catchall, not a tag page: component path too. –> WRAL investigates Vance County Vance County Sheriff’s Office WRAL specialists , so the rights line plexer’s image transform adds to body images has to be built here. Same shape on purpose: “A caption (© WRAL)”, or a bare “© WRAL” with no caption. –> Vance County jail (© WRAL) By Destinee Patterson, WRAL enterprise reporter A state letter earlier this month claimed that the Vance County Jail is still operating under unsafe conditions.

The letter, dated October 2, is the third official notice the NC Department of Health and Human Services has sent to Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame within the last year and a half. It comes four months after two inmates escaped the jail.

“In light of current circumstances and reported incidents at the Facility, DHSR remains concerned that the Vance County Sheriff and VCDC leadership are not acting with urgency to correct the ongoing, documented deficiencies,” the letter reads.

It said the jail is still dealing with many of the same problems documented in April 2025: inadequate staffing, failure to comply with depopulation requirements, continued physical plant and life-safety hazards, and a lack of required documentation.

State said it is aware of successful and attempted escapes, allegations of physical and sexual assaults, and “other critical events” at the jail recently.

As of October 2, the jail housed 136 inmates with 24 vacant staff positions, according to the letter.

“Upon information and belief, this lack of adequate compliance has likely contributed to VCDC’s inability to ensure the safe custody, safety, health or welfare of persons in the Facility’s custody,” the letter reads.

WRAL Investigates has reported on unsafe conditions and understaffing at the jail for years. The county is currently renovating the jail as leaders work toward opening a new facility.

The state required jail leadership to attend a meeting and submit a corrective action plan.

NCDHHS confirmed the meeting happened on Oct. 15 and the Governor’s office was involved.

“There was a commitment to work together to build a plan that addresses the immediate infrastructure and staffing needs while ensuring a long-term strategy for sustainable improvements at the facility,” an NCDHHS spokesperson wrote in an email.

District Attorney Mike Waters said his office was also in attendance.

“We discussed challenges our office faced in getting to pleas and trials with a lack of defense attorneys, reduced attorney access to in-custody defendants, in-custody defendants not being brought to court, timely submission of evidence for testing and delivering reports to prosecutors,” Waters wrote. “Our office discussed past processes that proved successful and other suggestions we hope are incorporated into an action plan.”

Sheriff Brame did not respond to WRAL Investigates’ questions about the ongoing issues and reports of large fights.