A North Carolina prison official is sounding the alarm over the effects of a budget impasse on the ability to staff prisons adequately and conduct needed maintenance.

Gov. Josh Stein warned in a March news conference the Department of Adult Correction is struggling and has at times asked vendors to float them on their bills. Stein proposed a what is being called “Critical Needs Budget” of nearly $1.5 billion. A portion of it would go to addressing vacancies, increasing pay and addressing the $80 million budget shortfall at the department.

Leslie Dismukes, secretary of the department, said staffing shortages and issues with recruitment hinder in-prison education and vocational training.

"If we can’t run safe prisons, we cannot run good programming," Dismukes outlined. "If we’re not running good programming, we are releasing people who don’t have the education and vocational training and who are not going to succeed upon reentry, which means the commission of more crime and that they will be right back in prison. And that is not how we create safe communities."

North Carolina was the only state in the country to not pass a budget last year, as Republicans, who control the state legislature, debated over teacher pay raises and cuts to income taxes.

The impasse comes as the department faces major staffing shortages. North Carolina ranks among the bottom states in starting pay for corrections officers. It has left the department with recruitment and retention challenges and a turnover rate of nearly 25% for officers.

Dismukes added deferred maintenance can further complicate the health and safety of people serving time in prison and the state’s responsibility to protect them.

"It absolutely impacts our ability to keep people who are in our custody but it also impacts the working environment of our staff," Dismukes explained. "Being able to address our deferred maintenance is a very critical piece, I think, of retaining people but also in meeting our obligation to house people safely."

Earlier this week, Republican lawmakers announced a budget framework they said will lead to pay increases for state workers but Stein and other Democrats remain hesitant about the plan.

Source: Public News Service