Former women’s prison officer arrested in detainee relationship probe

A former officer at Western Correctional Center for Women was arrested May 27 after Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office detectives said they uncovered a relationship with a detainee at the Swannanoa prison. James Allen Mathes, 66, was charged with a felony sex act offense, a case that puts the focus squarely on staff conduct inside one of Buncombe County’s most sensitive correctional settings.

North Carolina law treats that conduct as a Class E felony when a person who has custody of a victim, or an employee or agent of an institution with custody, engages in vaginal intercourse or a sexual act with that person. The statute is explicit that consent is not a defense, a recognition that any relationship in custody carries an inherent power imbalance and no real equality between staff and the incarcerated person.

The first warning sign, according to local reporting, came through the prison’s internal reporting system. Administrators were told about a Prison Rape Elimination Act complaint, and the warden referred the matter for criminal prosecution. Detectives began investigating in April, then moved to arrest Mathes after they determined he was involved in an inappropriate relationship with the detainee. The sheriff’s office said it appreciated the Department of Adult Correction’s collaboration on the case, a sign that both local law enforcement and state prison officials were involved once the allegation surfaced.

The setting matters. Western Correctional Center for Women sits at 55 Lake Eden Road in Black Mountain and is run by the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction as a female minimum-custody reentry facility with capacity for 366 offenders. State materials list programs including Adult Basic Education and GED classes, computer skills, Focus On Freedom, horticulture, hospitality and veterinary care, programs meant to prepare women for life after prison. When an employee allegedly violates boundaries in that environment, it threatens not only safety but the basic credibility of the institution’s rehabilitation mission.

The prison also remains a significant part of the region’s corrections landscape. A December 2024 report said the Swannanoa facility housed 333 women in minimum custody after Hurricane Helene-related disruptions. For Buncombe County, the arrest raises questions that go beyond one case: whether PREA complaints are surfaced quickly, whether staff supervision is strong enough to deter abuse, and how state and local officials protect incarcerated women in a place where consent can never be assumed.