The N.C. Department of Public Safety must reform staffing and safety measures in light of spiking prison violence across the state, experts say.

The department should hire new executives for adult and juvenile corrections, increase salaries, and recruit new prison staffers, among other things, said Duke University researchers who presented a report to the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission on Dec. 7.

Researchers interviewed prison leaders from Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Oregon, and Michigan.

The report outlined nine recommendations for DPS, all of which were grouped into three categories: invest in personnel, establish cohesive organizational culture, and improve facility safety. Most notable were employee “wellness programs,” increased perimeter security, and a year-long program to strip prisoners of cell phone contraband.

The recommendations are just one response to what DPS Secretary Erik Hooks calls “the most dangerous and violent year in North Carolina corrections history.”

Chaos erupted Oct. 12 during an escape attempt at Pasquotank Correctional Institution. Inmates at a prison sewing plant stabbed and battered guards with scissors and hammers. Prisoners set fire to the facility.

Four employees died. Eight officers and four inmates were injured. Four inmates were charged with first-degree murder.  

David Guice, chief deputy secretary for adult and juvenile corrections since 2013, resigned shortly thereafter.

Events at Pasquotank aren’t isolated.

An April altercation at Bertie Correctional Institution left a 29-year-old sergeant dead after an inmate beat her with a fire extinguisher.

Problems extend years into the past. In September 2012, inmates at Lanesboro Correctional Institution stabbed a member of a rival gang 13 times with crude shank knives. The event is just one of many investigated by the Charlotte Observer since 2015.

“We are looking for solutions. We didn’t create this problem, I understand that, but it’s our responsibility, and I’m the first to recognize that the buck stops here,” Hooks told commission members.

It will be tough to implement reforms across North Carolina’s 55 prisons, but DPS is committed to protecting its corrections staffers, said Kenneth Lassiter, director of prisons.

“This didn’t happen overnight,” he said. “One of my managers said the other day …’We work at a nuclear plant every day. We work with bombs every day, and we never know which one is going off.’ And that’s important in our decisions. You cannot predict human behavior.”

“It is the job of the state to recognize that this is a dangerous profession, and these people just want to go home to their families,” he concluded.  

Click here to read the full report.