The Buncombe County jail annex has been closed for renovations. The facility is perhaps best known for stashing as rebar the confiscated firearms that took a walk from the county’s evidence room. To my knowledge, no x-rays were ever taken to verify the claim. It may be the claim was too preposterous to justify investigation.

Regardless, the facility increased the county’s incarceration capacity from 524 to 624. Last year, thanks to numerous sentence diversion strategies, an average of 394 inmates per day were housed. The data was presented in a article calling attention to legislation that will soon allow the county to accept misdemeanants from other jurisdictions, who would formerly have gone to the state pen.