Staff shortages soar inside NC prisons. Officers are ‘exhausted,’ inmates feel the pinch
North Carolina’s prisons are grappling with the most severe staff shortages in recent history — a problem that family members worry could endanger those inside the prisons.
Statewide, the percentage of unfilled correctional officer jobs rose from about 17% in January 2021 to almost 33% in December, Department of Public Safety data shows. At some prisons, more than one of every two officer positions are vacant.
The state has boosted pay, closed many prison units, and required officers to work overtime in response.
Many remaining officers have been left with grueling work schedules. And some inmates have faced unreasonably long waits for medical care, prisoners, family members and advocates told the Charlotte Observer.
At Harnett Correctional Institution, a prison south of Raleigh where almost half of officer jobs are vacant, inmate Lamar Lineberger said prisoners with medical problems routinely wait two weeks to see a nurse. For two months, he has suffered a persistent cough, he said, but prison medical staffers have yet to determine what’s causing it.
“The medical staff is very short-handed,” said Lineberger, who is serving time for an habitual felon conviction. “It’s out of hand.”
On top of the vacancies, the prisons are now forced to cope with the temporary absences of about 800 prison staff members who are out of work because of COVID-19, state prisons commissioner Todd Ishee said.
Longtime North Carolina prison leaders have never experienced staff shortages so severe, Ishee confirmed.
“Our staff are exhausted,” Ishee said in an interview with the Observer Wednesday. “We’re stretched very thin.”
One reason for the shortage: Hundreds of prison officers are resigning. About 2,500 prison workers left their jobs in 2021, an Observer data analysis found.
Taylor East was among them. In September, East quit her position as a prison officer at the N.C. Correctional Institute for Women in Raleigh after two years on the job.
East, 24, has a baby boy at home and could no longer handle the 14-hour days and 70-hour weeks that the short-staffed prison required of its remaining workers, she said.
Some days were so busy that she struggled to find time to eat lunch.
“It was horrible,” East said. “Officers were leaving left and right.”
‘It’s out of hand’
Inmates and their families say the shortages have hurt them, too. With staff members scrambling to take care of basic prison functions, many inmates have been denied access to recreation, programs and privileges they once enjoyed, prisoners and advocates say.
And, with about 40% of prison nursing jobs now vacant, many inmates have been unable to get prompt medical care, prisoners and their family members say.
Some inmates have to wait months for medications to be refilled, according to Sandra Hardee, executive director of NC CURE, an inmate advocacy group. Others can wait up to 24 hours for medical personnel to attend to bloody wounds, she said.
The staff shortages also mean that many inmates get less recreation time and are forced to spend more time in their cells or dormitories, Hardee said.
“When they don’t have enough staff, the best way to control them is to put them in cells by themselves,” she said. “I think we’re more likely to see more suicides. I think it’s a dangerous situation.”
DPS officials say there may be occasions when inmates get less recreation time because of staff shortages. But they say COVID-19 — not staff shortages — are chiefly to blame for restrictions of movement inside prisons.
Despite the shortages, Ishee said the prisons have not seen an increase in disciplinary infractions for inmate violence. Assaults on staff members fell from 361 in 2020 to 293 last year — a drop of 23 percent, according to state Department of Public Safety data.
“From my perspective, that’s remarkable,” Ishee said. “With all of the shortages and challenges, it’s a real testament to the staff doing everything they can to keep the citizens of North Carolina safe.”
Linda Hanson worries about her son nonetheless. He’s an inmate at Pender Correctional Institution, a prison north of Wilmington where 39% of officer positions were vacant in December.
The staffing shortages mean that some violence and other dangerous behavior inside the prisons goes undetected, Hanson said.
“If someone is behaving in a way that they shouldn’t, it can be overlooked because there aren’t enough staff,” Hanson said.
Why the exodus?
Prisons across the country are wrestling with similar staff shortages. Many of the departures have been spurred by COVID-19, and by increased opportunities to work safer jobs elsewhere.
Many officers in North Carolina are exhausted, Ishee acknowledged, and some are leaving for jobs that offer better working conditions and pay.
Such jobs are easier to find these days, as the tight labor market prompts many employers to offer more enticing pay and perks.
“So many employers are offering opportunities to work from home,” Ishee said. “Prison staff don’t have that luxury.”
The average salary for officers in North Carolina’s medium security prisons is about $37,000 a year. That’s comparable to what some retail stores, such as Costco, pay. And it’s lower than the pay many other states provide their prison officers.
The state budget passed in November should help, Ishee said. It provides bonuses and pay increases to prison officers, along with annual pay bumps designed to reward officers for longevity.
Advocates say more sweeping changes are needed. Hardee, of NC Cure, said it’s time to release more older inmates, particularly those who have already served most of their sentences.
“We definitely need to look at our prison population and see who could be safely released into the community,” she said.
DPS officials say they’re also working hard to recruit new officers. The department has scheduled 75 hiring events, most of them virtual, this month.
In a short-term effort to cope with the shortages, the state temporarily closed many prison units in recent months, transferring staff members and inmates to other units. About 20 units have been closed since the beginning of 2021. Wake Correctional Center in Raleigh has also been temporarily closed.
But the shutdowns have created complications. With the closing of the minimum custody unit at Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville in August, inmate Deric Edwards and others were transferred to Catawba Correctional Center, north of Lincolnton.
Edwards’ dorm at Catawba Correctional is so crowded with inmates, “if I stretch, my arm is literally in someone else’s bunk,” he said.
Inmates must line up to use the bathroom, and often have to wait 20 minutes, Edwards said.
“All day long, you’re bumping into somebody. Everybody’s aggravated. Frustrated,” said Edwards, 57, who is in prison for a habitual felon conviction.
“In my 24 or 25 years (in prison), this is one of the worst living conditions I’ve been in,” he said. “They’re just putting people on top of people.”
As of Thursday, Catawba Correctional had just one active case of COVID-19. But Edwards worries about what will happen if more are infected in a crowded environment.
“If it ever gets in here again, everyone will get it immediately,” he said. “There’s no way to get away from everybody.”
‘It tears you down’
When East took a job at the women’s prison in 2019, about 13% of officer positions were vacant, data show. By the end of last year, that number had jumped to 33%.
East said she knows of about 10 officers at the women’s prison who left within the last year. Some quit because they were afraid of contracting COVID-19.
“COVID just gave them their final reason to leave the prison,” East said.
After quitting her job with the prisons, East took a position working from home in the insurance business. She’s making just as much money as she did with the prisons.
She misses some aspects of prison work, she said. But not the grueling hours.
“It started to take a toll on my body,” she said. “You start questioning yourself. ‘Is this the life that I’m supposed to be doing? Is this the life that I want?’ It tears you down.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
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