The methamphetamine epidemic in Western North Carolina has overloaded rural county jails unequipped to handle the volume of inmates being arrested in connection with the drug.

“At least 75 percent of the people we’ve got in jail are connected with meth. We have seen that increase in the last two years,” said Swain County’s Chief Deputy Jack Fortner.

Meth cases are taking so long to move through court — inmates monopolozing the cells in the meantime — that the space crunch is compounded beyond the sheer volume of meth users.

“On the meth, it is at least one year to get them to court,” said Macon County’s Chief Jailer Tim Holland. As a result, Macon County’s jail — just six years old — has been full on a regular basis lately.

The biggest delay in getting meth cases to trial is a shortage of lab equipment to test the drug. The state, which is responsible for compiling evidence against the meth users and prosecuting them, has to test the chemical make-up of the meth found in people’s cars, houses or pockets not only to prove that the substance is indeed meth, but to determine how strong it is, which in turn can dictate their sentence.

“In terms of getting these cases through court, a lot of cases are on backlog because the processing has not come back,” said Jackson County Sheriff Jimmy Ashe said of the chemical testing.

The Asheville State Bureau of Investigation lab has 3,500 meth cases waiting for chemical testing. The General Assembly recently approved a measure to double the number of chemists at the lab and a federal grant is being used to purchase new equipment.

“It is going to revolutionize what we are able to do,” said SBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph Reavis.

After finally going to trial and getting convicted, the inmate becomes the state’s responsibility and is supposed to be taken into a state prison. But there’s a backlog there, too.

“I have eight people that are waiting to go to the state Department of Corrections, but they are so backlogged they can’t take them. So we just have to keep them,” said Haywood County Sheriff Tom Alexander. The state pays Haywood room and board for those inmates, but in the meantime, Haywood doesn’t have room for its own inmates and has to rent bed space in other county jails. Alexander had to send 20 inmates to Rutherford and Lincoln counties last weekend.

“That was the only place I could find that had open beds,” Alexander said.

The biggest space crunch as a result of meth has been in the women’s quarters of county jails. Female inmates were once a rarity, but meth’s addictive grip shows no gender preference and has caused an equal spike in female inmates.

Macon County chief jailer Tim Holland said they went from one or two females a night on average to a dozen in the past five years. Jackson County’s jail is only two years old and it has already run out of beds for women.

“We just have to put them on the floor and everywhere else,” Fortner said of the female quarters in Swain’s jail. Fortner said women typically don’t commit violent crimes, but are landing in jail with crimes likes forging checks or stealing — all to get money for drugs.

Hidden costs

Jailers are bracing themselves for even more cramped quarters with the passage of a new state law aimed at cracking down on meth. It raises the minimum bond for meth users, which will keep more prisoners in jail while awaiting trial.

“Before, people were making bond, and while they were out on bond before their trial they would get busted again,” said N.C. Sen. John Snow, D-Murphy, a former judge who was a sponsor of the methamphetamine bill that passed in the most recent session of the General Assembly.

Haywood County Sheriff Tom Alexander said the deputies were catching the same people over and over again until finally bond was raised so high that many of those facing charges could not afford to get out while awaiting trial.

“They’d get out and get back in and get out and get back in. Every time we catch them, the bond goes up, so eventually they can’t get out,” said Alexander. Now maybe it will be high enough at the outset to keep them in jail the first time.

Fortner estimated about 25 percent of the inmates arrested for meth in Swain County make their bond and get out. More will definitely be stuck in jail now waiting for trial, Fortner said.

“It will be even more crowded,” said Fortner, who already has inmates sleeping on the floor.

In the meantime, county property taxpayers foot the bill. The more inmates there are and the longer they stay in jail, the more money it costs. And meth users can be costly inmates.

“The meth problem, and all drug arrests, are presenting issues for these county jails,” said Sen. Snow.

Methamphetamine is rendered from a concoction of household chemicals, some toxic, and injected into the body to achieve a high. It is deadly drug that poisons the body, however, causing many health problems. Once booked in the jail, the county assumes liability for the inmate’s medical care, from doctor’s check-ups to hospitalization. Ailments for meth users include everything from corroded teeth to hepatitis, said Macon County Chief Jailer Tim Holland.

“These people are costing the taxpayers a lot of money,” Holland said.

Whether it’s extra jail space, medical bills for inmates, or the expansion of the SBI crime lab, the hidden financial cost of the meth epidemic is enormous. But the social costs are just as bad.

Ashe said drug-related crimes account for 85 percent of the inmates in the Jackson jail.

“That constitutes a lot of different things, whether that is domestic violence financial crimes, theft, failure to pay child support, child abuse — and it is all due to their addiction,” Ashe said.

One of the biggest ticket items is caring for children of meth users.

“In Jackson County alone there were 39 children removed with total parental rights terminated of children who were brought up in a home where methamphetamine was involved,” said Ashe.