JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – The Onslow County Jail had two air conditioning units break down last weekend.

The Onslow County Sheriff’s Department learned Friday that the HVAC unit on the women’s block broke down Friday night. Another HVAC unit broke down Sunday in the men’s block.

“My staff notified me when the first unit started causing us problems,” said Sheriff Chris Thomas of the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office. “It started malfunctioning and having problems on Thursday, but it went down on Friday.”

Deborah Bauer learned that the air conditioner had broken from her daughter, who is being held at the Onslow County Detention Center.

“My daughter had contacted me,” Bauer said. “She said, ‘Mom, we’re dying here, we can barely breathe, it’s hot and we can’t sleep.’”

On Friday night, Bauer’s daughter was hospitalized for an apparent heat-related injury. After hearing this, Bauer began to worry.

“She had gone to bed,” Bauer said. “When he got up, he immediately fell to the ground and hit his head.”

Sheriff Thomas says the temperature range at the time of the fall was, in fact, between state laws of 68 to 85 degrees. He said other women who were in the affected ward were transferred to other places on Saturday.

“We have 11 blocks here at the detention center,” Sheriff Thomas said. “Most of them house about 48 people. We try to keep one block empty all the time that way, if we have a problem, an emergency or a maintenance issue, we can move people to that block and work on the other block. “We didn’t have it available on Friday.”

Bauer’s daughter was treated and released from the hospital after learning she had heat exhaustion, dehydration and a concussion. In the women’s ward the air conditioning has not worked for six days, so Bauer will continue to worry about her daughter.

“I was going to call the mayor and the sheriff,” Bauer said. “I was going to call anyone I could to try to do something because it’s just inhumane for them to be treated that way and locked up.”

Sheriff Thomas told WITN they ordered parts for the units and they are expected to be here next week.

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