Sheriff Charles Blackwood of Orange County North Carolina came to discuss the new jail being built in the area and the systematic improvements that he has experienced over his long career that truly help inmates and community members to be safer.

Sheriff Blackwood, who came to this office in 1980 and worked his way through the ranks in the decades that have followed to become Sheriff in 2014 discussed in detail how the community has changed over those decades - including the affect of social media and smart phones on everyone in our society in the last 10-12 years. He discussed the impact of this change in society has had on his officers. 

Regarding improving prison systems, Sheriff Blackwood shared the differences between a cold release - simply letting an individual go back into the same atmosphere that may have produced crime - and a better system that surrounds an individual with counseling and support with a potential job that could assist him or her into a better environment and better chance at a more positive experience in life. He discussed how this experience had a better chance of making all members of a community safer with less individuals returning to criminal behavior.