New data shows four assaults take place in NC prisons every day

Prison safety is on the minds of many after five corrections employees were killed in the past year and new numbers show multiple attacks in North Carolina prisons every day.

Posted 1:54 a.m. Jun 28, 2018 — Updated 2:31 a.m. Jun 28, 2018

Adam Owens

, WRAL reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Prison safety is on the minds of many after five corrections employees were killed in the past year and new numbers show multiple attacks in North Carolina prisons every day.

Four workers at the Pasquotank Correctional Institution were killed last year, and others were injures, during an attempted escape in October. According to 911 tapes, the workers were beaten by inmates with hammers and stabbed with scissors.

It was later discovered by the National Institute of Corrections that the prison had a staffing vacancy of about 25 percent and was deemed unsafe to fully operate on the day of the attack. The team also found that most officers were minimally trained.

Months earlier, a sergeant at the Bertie Correctional Institution died after an inmate beat her with a fire extinguisher.

Officials said 2017 was the deadliest year in the history of the state’s prison system.

The attacks last year helped to change things in the North Carolina prison system. Authorities improved how they track and record assaults at their facilities and, so far this year, the numbers are eye-opening.

Records show about four assaults take place in state prisons every day. From Jan. 1 through May, recently released statistics show 227 workers and 349 inmates were attacked in some way.

Just last week, two attacks in two days on staff members at Raleigh’s Central Prison were attributed to the same group of inmates.

An officer at Foothills Correctional Institution in Morganton was attacked in March by an inmate with a shank. The inmate was charged with assault.

A prison officer at Maury Correctional Institution in Greene County received a non-life-threatening injury after an inmate attack in March.

A second attack occurred about two hours later when an inmate walked up behind a case manager and hit them on the head with his fist. A supervisor trying to break up the scuffle was also hurt.

The numbers, experts say, may not represent an increase in prison violence. State officials say it is difficult to compare them to previous years because the prison system enhanced the data they gather just this year.

State officials say they are dealing with meaner prisoners after sentencing reforms passed in 2001 cut the inmate population by 3,000, leaving behind a larger percentage of inmates convicted of violent felonies.

"We are dealing with a more violent offender population today. Staff working in a prison environment face inherent danger. We are doing all we can to alleviate the danger and alleviate assaults on staff," said director of prisons Kenneth Lassiter.

Prison officials said that, while there have been a number of incidents in prison around the state, only a small portion of incidents required employees to take time off from work to recover.

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