When the wooden cane smacked the prisoner’s head, its curved end snapped off and slid 20 feet to my prison-issued sneakers. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I was writing a poem about my friend’s recent bachelor party in prison when it happened. I looked up and saw blood streaming down the victim’s face as he latched on to the cane in desperation.
Luckily, the overcrowding didn’t last. The 350 additional bunks were removed in 2013, leaving a manageable population size — andBut a decade later, North Carolina was suffering from severe understaffing, which forced the prison’s population to balloon again. Between 2020 and 2023, the vacancy rate of correctional officers in North Carolina
I can’t blame the crisis of understaffing on prison workers, administrators or even the secretary of the NCDAC. They are forced to make the best of insufficient ranks. Incarcerated people notice when officers are called in on their off days or stay late, sacrificing rest and family time to cover for vacancies. They work when ill. Many perform duties outside of their job description. And they are first responders to most emergencies.
What if lawmakers could have invested that $45 million into prison programming, like higher education, drug treatment or anger management? Not only would prisons be safer, but society would be too, because formerly incarcerated people would be set free with the tools needed to live prosperous lives. Phillip Vance Smith II has been incarcerated for 22 years. As a member of the Society of Professional Journalists , hisIn response to a request for comment on understaffing at Nash Correctional Institution, a representative for the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction emailed HuffPost the following statement:Maintaining the safety and security of correctional staff, offenders and the public remains our primary responsibility.
CO vacancies do not comprise the entire story. Accounting for critical nursing and maintenance positions, as well as behavioral health and other frontline correctional positions, NCDAC’s overall vacancy rate is around 26%. Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking forAt HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.
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