NC Department of Adult Corrections rejects calls for inmate early release due to Hurricane Helene

The North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections (NCDAC) says that accusations made in a letter from human rights groups related to the treatment and conditions of inmates, are based on information that is “incorrect.” Further, they said some reports are “totally false” from a “small number of disgruntled offenders.”

The statement came in a letter this week responding to activist groups who recently called on the NCDAC to release some inmates early due to alleged “overcrowding” in the transfers prompted by Hurricane Helene. They also allege that there are poor living conditions at some correctional facilities. 

“…it is responsible and prudent administration to minimize the state prison population once again by applying these common sense principals to permit low-risk individuals to return home,” reads the activists’ letter. “Principally we would suggest a reduction in population by 400 women and 1500 men…”

The letter claims that the transfers have caused overcrowding in many prisons, including: Anson Correctional Center for Women (118%), Foothills Correctional (103.7 %), Greene Correctional (104.2 %), Hyde Correctional (109.9 %), Johnston Correctional (104.2%) Lincoln Correctional (112.4%), Nash Correctional (134.7%), Pamlico Correctional (136.7%), Pender Correctional (102.2%), Randolph Correctional (104.4%), Rutherford Correctional (101.3%), and Scotland Correctional Institution (103.8%).

The NCDAC responded, saying that the data the groups used was wrong.

“As you are no doubt well aware, the percentages you cite reflect Standard Operating Capacity for these facilities, not Expanded Operating Capacity, and certainly not Maximum Operating Capacity,” reads the NCDAC letter. “These other evaluative measures exist precisely so that events that trigger exceeding Standard Operating Capacity can be measured in order to ensure continued adequate space for offenders.”

The groups requested early release of low-risk inmates, pointing to a similar push made during the pandemic. The NCDAC said the circumstances are too different to call for early release.

“First, it is true that during COVID, the then-Secretary of the Department of Public Safety exercised extraordinary discretion to release individuals under the Extended Limits of Confinement program (‘ELC’),” according to NCDAC. “This activation of ELC was a direct response to the global pandemic, with priority given to first releasing those at highest risk of contracting the disease.”

The activist groups also suggested placing offenders at Black Mountain Treatment Center on ELC, something the NCDAC said was not beneficial to the community or the offender.

“Persons enrolled in this treatment program are not technically confined; they can leave the program at any time, although to do so constitutes a violation of their conditions of probation,” said NCDAC. “It is impossible to see how the best interests of either the community or the offenders could be advanced by removing them from court-ordered substance abuse treatment and returning them to the community without it.”

Also in their letter, the groups said the conditions at certain correctional facilities were poor after the storm and transfers, including limited food and clean water, and flooding in cells.

“You next allege concerning conditions at Anson Correctional Institution based on the report of only a very small number of disgruntled offenders, and without seeking any confirmation or response from the Department before presenting those allegations as true when they are almost entirely false,” reads the NCDAC letter. 

NCDAC addresses each of the specific allegations laid out by the human rights advocates. 

“The Department’s concerns encompass not only the wellbeing of offenders in our custody, but also the public’s safety, and circumstances affecting our own staff,” reads the letter. “We are committed to returning our staff and offenders to our western facilities as soon as practicable and, to that end, this week we are beginning the ongoing process of relocating offenders back ot the west as public utilities are restored.”

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