NC creates new leadership role for beleaguered prisons
Struggling to protect staff members, prevent inmate suicides and retain prison officers, North Carolina officials have created a new leadership position to oversee the state’s 55 prisons.
Todd Ishee, a deputy director of Ohio’s prison system, will become North Carolina’s first Commissioner of Prisons, effective June 24. Ishee will oversee operations, health services, administration and programs and Correction Enterprises.
Correction Enterprises, an arm of the Department of Public Safety, employs inmates and runs industrial plants inside state prisons.
Correctional Enterprises oversaw the sewing plant at Pasquotank Correctional Institution, where a fatal escape attempt began in October 2017. Inmates allegedly used scissors and hammers to killed four prison workers.
“The Division of Prisons is facing significant challenges, including prison reform, hiring, retention and health care ... ,” DPS spokesman John Bull wrote in an email to the Observer. “Mr. Ishee comes with a long and impressive record, and skill sets honed over almost 30 years in the management of prisons.”
Ishee, according to Bull, began his career as a correctional officer. Later he became a warden, security administrator, operations chief and deputy director for Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Office of Reentry — his most recent position.
With North Carolina, Ishee will make $140,000 annually, Bull said.
One of the most pressing issues Ishee will face is hiring — and retaining — prison officers. Last December, 18% of officer positions were vacant, records show. Some prisons had a vacancy rate of more than 35% at some point last year.
The Pasquotank sewing plant was short-staffed the day of the escape attempt, records show. And Bertie Correctional Institution, another eastern North Carolina prison, was short-staffed when Sgt. Meggan Callahan was allegedly attacked and killed by an inmate in April 2017.
Meanwhile, recent years have been deadly for inmates, too.
A record-high 12 inmates committed suicide last year, compared to six in 2017 and seven in 2016.
The spike in deaths caused the state to create a suicide prevention task force this year. The group, made up of behavioral health specialists, hopes to reduce inmate suicides by reviewing the state’s training policy and procedures and consulting with outside experts.
Bull said Ishee will evaluate the prison operations and make recommendations to Tim Moose, who will become the state’s chief deputy secretary of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice on Saturday.
Moose previously served as North Carolina’s deputy secretary and has been the acting chief deputy secretary.
Bull said Moose will be paid $148,700.
This story was originally published May 31, 2019 at 10:26 AM with the headline "NC creates new leadership role for beleaguered prisons."
