When Leslie Cooley Dismukes was sworn in as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction on January 6, 2025, she inherited a staffing crisis that she has described in blunt terms: "Our staffing situation is dire and it is dangerous — dangerous to my staff, dangerous to the people in my custody, and dangerous to the people of North Carolina." The statement, reported by NC Health News and The Assembly, is not rhetorical flourish. The data behind it reflects years of compounding workforce failure in one of the country's largest state prison systems.
The Numbers
North Carolina's prison staffing situation in 2025:
- 24% turnover rate among correctional officer positions in calendar year 2025 — meaning roughly one in four officers left their position within the year
- 2,647 employees hired in fiscal year 2024-25 — but 2,483 left over the same period. The department is running on a treadmill, hiring almost as many people as it loses
- Three prisons with vacancy rates exceeding 60% — meaning more than 3 in 5 authorized correctional officer positions are unfilled
- Ten additional prisons with vacancy rates above 50%
- $103 million in overtime paid to correctional officers in fiscal year 2024-25, up from $91 million the prior year — a $12 million increase in a single year
The Pay Problem
The structural driver of the staffing crisis is pay. The best starting pay North Carolina can offer a correctional officer is approximately $18 per hour. The state's own estimates put the living wage for a childless, single worker in North Carolina at $17 to $22 per hour — meaning that even at entry level, correctional work competes with the lower end of the living wage range, and falls well below what construction trades, warehouse work, and other physically demanding jobs pay in the current labor market.
Secretary Dismukes, along with Governor Josh Stein, publicly called on the North Carolina General Assembly to pass a budget that includes meaningful pay raises for correctional staff. Until starting pay for officers becomes competitive with the general labor market, the department's hiring will continue to be offset by attrition to better-paying employers.
What Understaffing Means Inside Prisons
When three prisons have more than 60 percent of officer positions vacant, the facilities are being run with a fraction of their intended staffing. The practical consequences:
- Officers routinely work double shifts under mandatory overtime, accumulating fatigue that impairs judgment and response time
- Housing units may have fewer officers present than security protocols require, reducing supervision and response capacity
- Programming sessions — education, vocational training, substance abuse treatment — require officer escorts and may be canceled when coverage cannot be arranged
- Incident response times lengthen when fewer officers are on post
The Recruitment Pilot Program
Governor Stein and Secretary Dismukes spotlighted a new recruitment pilot program as part of their public push for legislative action. The program targets non-traditional recruitment channels — including partnerships with military transition assistance programs and community colleges with criminal justice programs — to expand the pipeline of potential officers beyond the traditional advertising-and-application model.
NCDAC headquarters: 831 West Morgan Street, Mail Service Center 4260, Raleigh, NC 27699. Phone: (919) 716-3200. Website: dac.nc.gov.