State takes action to enhance safety at North Carolina prisons

RALEIGH — State officials are taking more action to try and make North Carolina prisons safer in response to the deaths of five prison employees at the hands of inmates in 2017.

The Department of Public Safety officials outlined 12 new safety changes to protect staff and keep prisons secure, train employees and hire more, to include:

• Situational awareness training so employees know what's happening around them
• Requesting that sheriff's offices patrol prison perimeters to stop contraband and throw-overs
• Removing close custody inmates from assignments that involve cutting tools
• 300 correctional officers will become field training officers to help new hires
• Holding job fairs

Prisoners armed with scissors and hammers killed four workers inside the sewing plant at Pasquotank Correctional Institute in October, officials said.

Cox Media Group