Our deadly prisons
Published October 20, 2017
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, October 18, 2017.
The deadly attack at a state prison last week exposed the extremely dangerous conditions inside the walls. Two employees were killed and 10 others were injured in a violent escape attempt at Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City.
Inmates working in a Correction Enterprises specialty sewing plant set a fire, then assaulted staff members with hammers and scissors. Veronica Darden, who managed the plant, and Officer Justin Smith were killed.
Correctional Officers Wendy Shannon and George Midgett and maintenance worker Geoffrey Howe were hospitalized with serious injuries.
The escape attempt failed, thanks to heroic work by these and other officers.
The incident was the worst prison violence in many years in North Carolina — but the second murderous assault in just six months. Officer Meggan Callahan was beaten to death by an inmate at Bertie Correctional Institution in April. She was trying to put out a fire when an inmate — serving a life sentence for murder — overpowered her in an apparent ambush and struck her multiple times with the fire extinguisher.
These cases illustrate what correctional officers face. They are exposed to convicted criminals, unarmed and sometimes lacking adequate support. Dangers can be no less than what police officers encounter on the street.
In the Pasquotank facility, inmates working in the sewing shop had access to tools that could be turned into deadly weapons. They inflicted grievous harm on prison employees.
In response, the Department of Public Safety put the prison on lockdown and began an assessment to determine what new policies, procedures or safety measures should be implemented. On the order of Gov. Roy Cooper, it also suspended Correction Enterprises operations at all state prisons while it reviews safety practices.
When, or if, those operations resume, the state will increase the number of correctional officers who provide security for Correction Enterprises.
It also will review emergency procedures at all prisons.
Finally, it quickly launched a search at Pasquotank by a Prison Emergency Response Team to uncover evidence as well as “unrelated contraband that may be in the facility.”
These steps are all too late. Certainly, procedures and policies require regular re-examination. But prisoners took advantage of existing security breaches to launch last week’s uprising.
