Protect prison workers
Published November 23, 2017
Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, November 23, 2017.
State data obtained by The Associated Press underscores that our governor and legislature must work all the harder at efforts to protect prison workers.
The issue came to the fore this fall with a prison-break attempt outside Elizabeth City that left four employees dead, the worst assault on workers at our state prisons. Our state must better protect these crucial employees who labor for modest pay.
“Assaults on prison staff so far this year are already 50 percent higher than five years ago, according to state prisons data provided to The Associated Press. The same period has seen a near-doubling of incidents in which employees at Pasquotank Correctional Institution — the site of last month’s failed escape — were so seriously hurt by inmates they missed workdays,” The AP reported. “The cases don’t include non-injury assaults by inmates such as spitting, throwing urine or shoving employees. The increase in assaults comes even though the prison system has cut the number of inmates by 3,000 since 2011.”
The state Department of Public Safety runs the prisons. Agency spokesman Jerry Higgins told the AP that changes in sentencing laws that sent more misdemeanor offenders to county jails instead of prisons “have done as intended and resulted in more violent offenders in prison for longer sentences.”
Other factors in the rise in assaults include low salaries and not enough staff. For example, on the latter point, Bertie Correctional Institution, where a guard was beaten to death in April, had a 26-percent vacancy rate for correctional officer spots in October, the AP reported.
“This is an ongoing commitment to improving,” Rep. Ted Davis, a New Hanover County Republican who heads the unified legislative committee overseeing public safety, told the AP. “On behalf of the people of this state, I extend our deepest gratitude to those officers and employees working in such a dangerous line of duty so that we may be safe.”
We agree. And we expect Rep. Davis, other legislative leaders and our governor will deliver on better protecting these workers.
