Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Kathryn Bryan has been hired as the new administrator for the county jail.

Bryan started her job as jail administrator mid-July, replacing Catrena Ross, who was released from the position earlier the same month.

Bryan comes from a strong law enforcement and military background, according to a press release from Sheriff Ernie Coleman. For 10 years, Bryan served as a Military Police officer in the U.S. Army, then went on to spend 18 years with the Dare County Sheriff’s Office, working in investigations. During her last three years with Dare County, Bryan served as the jail administrator of that county’s facility. While she opted for an early retirement in 2014, Bryan soon found herself back in law enforcement, she said.

Bryan’s path to Beaufort County started in March, when she met Beaufort County Sheriff Ernie Coleman at the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association’s Leadership Institute, where she was teaching a course about inmate medical care.

She said the Beaufort County Detention Center — a confined space, located in the basement of the Beaufort County Courthouse — has its share of challenges.

“The infrastructure, the facility itself, the physical layout, is a challenge,” Bryan said, adding that the county jail only allows detention staff indirect supervision of inmates, where new designs afford direct supervision. “What isn’t a challenge is the quality of staff here. They do remarkably well with what they have to work with.”

In the past, the number of inmates versus the number of beds in the jail was in issue, but one that Bryan has not inherited because the court and the sheriff’s office have worked together to reduce the jail population, she said.

“There was a big push to collaborate with the courts. It’s been a very successful campaign to reduce overcrowding,” Bryan said.

Though infrastructure issues are unique in Beaufort County’s jail, Bryan said it shares the same problems that all jails have — mainly that budget cuts to state programs mean that jails have become de facto housing for those with mental health problems and addictions.

“As state resources lessen, our burden increases,” Bryan said.

But Bryan is committed to bettering all things associated with the detention field, all while teaching the Detention Officer Certification Course at the North Carolina Justice Academy and serving on the DOCC Revision Committee, in addition to working on her PhD in leadership and management.

“I have found my passion and my calling in the detention world. I am devoted to improving and enhancing our profession in any way possible,” Bryan said.