What happens at the Durham County jail after a DWI arrest

The ride to 219 S. Mangum St.

People search for 'DUI', but the charge in North Carolina is driving while impaired, DWI, under G.S. 20-138.1. Once a Durham officer arrests you for it, the next stop is the county jail, not the courthouse.

The Durham County Detention Facility is at 219 S. Mangum St., Durham, NC 27701, a few blocks from the courthouse at 510 South Dillard Street. The Durham County Sheriff's Office runs it. The building opened in the summer of 1996 with 576 single cells, now holds 736, and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Intake and release, the criminal magistrates and medical are all on the first two levels, so everything in a DWI booking happens in one part of the building.

Who brings you there depends on where you were stopped: the Durham Police Department, the Sheriff's Office and its Traffic Unit, the State Highway Patrol's Durham office (Troop C District VII, 101 S. Miami Blvd.), or Duke University or North Carolina Central University Police near their campuses. Whichever agency arrests you, the initial appearance is before a magistrate, and Durham's criminal magistrates sit at the jail.

The breath test and your implied-consent rights

By driving on a North Carolina road you have already agreed to a chemical analysis if charged with an implied-consent offense; that is what G.S. 20-16.2 means by implied consent. The officer or chemical analyst chooses the test. For breath you are “taken before a chemical analyst authorized to administer a test of a person's breath,” who must tell you your rights out loud and in writing first.

The written rights include the right to refuse, with its price, and this one: “You may call an attorney for advice and select a witness to view the testing procedures remaining after the witness arrives, but the testing may not be delayed for these purposes longer than 30 minutes from the time you are notified of these rights.”

North Carolina's evidentiary breath instrument is the Intox EC/IR II. Under G.S. 20-139.1 the analyst collects “at least duplicate sequential breath samples”; the result counts only if two consecutive samples do not differ by more than 0.02, and “Only the lower of the two test results” can be used to prove your alcohol concentration. Blood may be requested “in addition to or in lieu of” breath. This guide could not confirm from a public source where in Durham the instrument is kept, so it does not say.

The magistrate and the impaired-driving hold

In Durham the criminal magistrates work from the first two levels of the detention facility; their number on nccourts.gov is (919) 560-6826.

For an impaired driving charge the magistrate applies G.S. 15A-534.2, amended in 2025. If there is “clear and convincing evidence that the impairment...presents a danger...of physical injury to himself or others or damage to property,” the magistrate must hold you, tell you why, and still set conditions of release for when the hold ends. It ends when “The defendant's physical and mental faculties are no longer impaired to the extent that he presents a danger,” or when “A sober, responsible adult is willing and able to assume responsibility for the defendant.” Either way, you “may be denied pretrial release...for a period no longer than 24 hours.”

Subsection (d) sets the number: a judicial official “is required to determine that a defendant with an alcohol concentration less than 0.05 is no longer impaired.” That release test is walled off from your case. Its results cannot be used against you in any criminal, civil or administrative proceeding, and “The fact that a defendant refused to comply...may not be admitted into evidence.”

1. The conditions of release

   Durham's bail policy for the Sixteenth Judicial District took effect December 1, 2025. Except for a violent offense, the judicial official “must impose condition (1) or (2),” a written promise to appear or an unsecured appearance bond, unless that “will not reasonably assure the appearance” of the defendant. A secured bond may be set “if, and only if” the other conditions will not assure appearance, would pose a danger of injury, or would likely result in destruction of evidence.

2. The bond ranges

   The policy's misdemeanor ranges run from $100.00–$250.00 for Class 3 up to $500.00–$1,500.00 for Class A1, with a separate $30,000.00–$45,000.00 range for habitual DWI. It names impaired driving only twice: that habitual range, and a rule that the judicial official must ask about citizenship status for “any offense involving impaired driving as defined in N.C.GS. 20-4.01.”

3. Alcohol conditions and pretrial services

   nccourts.gov notes that, “usually for charges of impaired driving,” release conditions might prohibit consuming alcohol while the case is pending. Durham County's Pretrial Services program, established in 2006, interviews defendants for first appearance and can supervise release with check-ins.

How a friend or family member gets you out

The quickest release under the statute is to a “sober, responsible adult” who “is willing and able to assume responsibility for the defendant.” nccourts.gov describes a custody release as release “to a person or organization that agrees in writing to supervise him while the case is pending and to make sure he comes to court.” A secured bond, if one is set, can be posted with cash, a mortgage on land, or a surety such as a bail bondsman licensed by the North Carolina Department of Insurance; “A custodial official (jailer) or magistrate generally can tell you how to post bond.”

This guide could not confirm from any Sheriff's Office page which payment methods the Durham jail's bond window accepts, or a main phone number for the facility. The published numbers are the criminal magistrates at (919) 560-6826 and the Sheriff's general inquiries line at (919) 560-0897. The Sheriff's website has an inmate population search and online visitation registration.

The two papers you leave with

The first is the release order: your written promise to appear, or the unsecured or secured bond, with the magistrate's conditions and the date of your first appearance in Durham County District Court. nccourts.gov calls the written promise “a written agreement that you will come to court on your court date.” Miss it and the judge might treat that as a failure to appear and issue an order for your arrest.

The second is the civil revocation, which is the DMV taking your license for 30 days before your case is decided. Under G.S. 20-16.5, when the sworn revocation report from the officer and the chemical analyst shows a refusal, a result of 0.08 or more, 0.04 or more in a commercial vehicle, or any alcohol under 21, the judicial official at the initial appearance “shall enter an order revoking the person's driver's license” and “shall order the person to surrender his license.” The period is 30 days if you surrender the license within five working days of the order, 45 days if it is picked up later, and it does not end until you pay a $100 fee to the clerk, who reports the revocation to the DMV within 10 working days.

If you are later convicted, G.S. 20-179 says the judge “may not give credit to the defendant for the first 24 hours of time spent in incarceration pending trial.” The night at 219 S. Mangum St. does not count against a sentence.

From here the case moves to the courthouse at 510 South Dillard Street. This guide's court page explains how a Durham DWI case moves through district court, from the first setting to sentencing. The next post in this series covers the first practical step: how to find your Durham court date and case online.

Statutes quoted from ncleg.gov, current through S.L. 2026-30; Durham bail policy effective December 1, 2025.