When North Carolina House and Senate budget writers begin hammering out a compromise between their two proposed budgets, one of the more pressing problems will be how to address the crisis in North Carolina’s prisons.
During a confirmation hearing this month, Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Dismukes told lawmakers the state is now faced with 40% vacancy rate for correctional officers.
NCDAC facilities (Source: Division of Fiscal Research)Three prisons currently have a vacancy rate over 60%, and at another 10 the vacancy rate hovers at over 50%.
“The General Assembly has been our partner and has dedicated resources to help us address this issue. But I’ll be honest, it’s still a struggle,” Dismukes told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Department of Adult Correction (DAC) has almost 32,000 people in physical custody and another 77,000 under community supervision. State employees in the department are working 12-hour shifts and mandatory overtime to meet minimum staffing levels in the prisons.
Flanked by law enforcement officers, Dismukes said she has workers who are dealing with exhaustion and child care needs, that many cannot afford.
“What is the department doing now to recruit new employees and what do you think needs to be changed to do to increase your recruitment?” Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Burke, McDowell, Buncombe) asked.
Dismukes said recent raises have been helpful, but North Carolina lags its neighbors.
“We are for correctional officers in the bottom three in the country, and certainly in all of our surrounding states, we are at lowest,” she said.
DAC urgently needs to keep qualified staff on board to train the new staff that are being recruited.
“Right now, we’re in great danger of losing a lot of our talented staff who know how to do the job because we cannot pay them equivalent to other states or other industries within North Carolina,” Dismukes added.
North Carolina Rep. Phil Rubin (D-Wake) reads legislation ahead of a committee hearing on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)Rep. Phil Rubin (D-Wake) agrees with that concern.
“If you want to be a prison guard, you’ve got a lot of reasons not to do it here,” Rubin said in an interview this week with NC Newsline.
Rubin said the House budget proposal offers a meager 2.5% raise for state workers and proposes getting rid of many positions that have been vacant for months. For DAC that would mean the loss of 400 correctional officer positions that are unfilled.
“We can’t fill the spots. So, then we get rid of them, and we have too few prison guards, which endangers the ones that are there, and it drives them out of the job because their job just got harder and worse and they’re still not getting paid better,” Rubin explained. “Meanwhile, we’re hearing about doubling the premiums and the deductibles on the State Health Plan.”
Aging infrastructure, aging populations
Beyond just a modest pay increase, the state needs to make a commitment to ensuring the correction officers have a safe workplace.
AC units installed and secured in multiple housing facilities in Harnett County. (Photo: NCDAC)NCDAC has recorded more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance for the aging infrastructure in prisons.
“It’s $1.4 billion of maintenance that needs to be done right now,” Dismukes stressed. “Our fire suppression systems are outdated or completely inoperable in 23 prisons and several prisons don’t have air conditioning.”
Correction officials say it’s not a matter of comfort. The lack of cooling systems in close conditions in an institutional setting can increase the risk of violence. A 2015 Columbia Law School report noted that the rise in older, sicker prisoners may also be more vulnerable to the heat.
North Carolina has been working on a long-term project to cool its prisons since 2021. As of last summer, DAC was installing air conditioning systems in buildings containing the remaining one-third of the beds its staff supervises.
Beyond the indoor environmental conditions, the agency learned during Hurricane Helene that it does not have the redundancies and system resilience to meet natural disasters. The storm forced the transfer of nearly 2,200 prisoners from five facilities in the western part of the state. Civil rights groups warned at the time that the emergency transfers exacerbated overcrowded conditions and the workload on correctional officers.
North Carolina is dealing with an aged prison population, adding to health care costs. (Source: Division of Fiscal Research)“We must make critical decisions about our prison locations to maximize staffing and return on investment for our infrastructure repairs,” Dismukes told senators.
Another ever-present worry for DAC is medical costs.
In fiscal year 2024, the department spent $400 million on health care. This fiscal year, that number is projected to rise to $425 million.
“These costs, we cannot avoid given the aging prison population and our duty of care to them,” warned Dismukes. “We must take a look at our overall medical infrastructure and build the best prison medical system we can and create savings wherever possible.”
Getting medical personnel to work in the correction system remains a challenge. The persistent and high vacancy rates for nurses have resulted in the use of contract or traveling nurses, a more expensive option for the state.
‘No silver bullet’
Dismukes is expected to win confirmation from the Judiciary Committee at its next meeting.
Sen. Danny Britt (R-Robeson) said the secretary deserves credit for her willingness to take on the challenge.
“It is probably one of the most challenging budget areas that we have to deal with, both on scale and funding,” he acknowledged.
Britt said the Senate has done its best with salaries, earmarking an additional 5.25% raise for correctional officers combined with step increases. Probation and parole officers could get an additional 2% raise in the Senate budget.
“There’s no real silver bullet, so hopefully if confirmed, you can come up with those answers outside of salaries that can fill these positions. We’re willing to do whatever we can to assist. Hope you’re willing to reach out.”
Sen. Danny Britt said in the last 10 years he’s served there have been close to 3,000 vacancies in NC correction officers. NC Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Dismukes says wages and conditions must improve to attract and keep workers. (Photo: NCGA) Read More Details
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