(The Center Square) – Sheriff Quentin Miller says his office will be cooperating with North Carolina state Auditor Dave Boliek’s office to rectify the mishandling of more than $19,000 belong to inmates.
The auditor’s office made its report on the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office public on Wednesday morning. It said between November 2009 and April 2024, there were 914 individuals not given back a collective $19,272 that go into respective inmate fund bank accounts.
Money in those accounts, upon release, are given back to inmates. It is what they have on them when booked into jail.
Auditors say the inmate fund balance has an unsupported balance between 2021 and 2024 that grew to $354,804.
Miller was elected in 2018, becoming the county’s first Black sheriff. His journey to the county’s highest elected office went through the Asheville Police Department from 1994-2018, where he retired as a sergeant with 25 years service. The 11 years prior to that were spent in the U.S. Army where he was a military policeman.
He’s credited with seeking audits to clean up an office published reports say is mired in mismanagement. The audits would help gain accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, a benchmark colloquially known as CALEA and highly sought by most law enforcement agencies.
The problems noted in reports, including by the Asheville local newspaper on Tuesday, involve missing items from evidence rooms.
“As a result of this investigation and what our team found and reported on, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office has taken steps to rectify the wrong that’s been done,” Boliek said. “I’ve also reached out to the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association to offer my office’s assistance to sheriffs across the state. Together, we’ll be working on best practices to help make sure this issue doesn’t occur elsewhere.”
