RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Division of Prisons temporarily suspended operations at Johnston Correctional Institution to support operations at Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, North Carolina, which was severely impacted by Covid-19.
The Division of Prisons says it has moved offenders out of Johnston Correctional Institution and reassigned staff to Neuse Correctional Institution.
“The staff at Neuse have been working in the toughest conditions, for weeks on end, and desperately needed support,” said Todd Ishee, Commissioner of Prisons. “They are owed everyone’s thanks for their commitment to serving the public, standing tall in their daily responsibilities and helping ensure safety of their co-workers and those in custody.”
These decisions have been made after a mass testing operation of the approximately 250 employees and 700 offenders at Neuse Correctional Institution revealed a total of 13 staff and more than 330 offenders were infected with virus
Officials say 98 percent of those tested are asymptomatic and another 197 test results are pending.
The first two offenders at Neuse tested positive for COVID-19 on April 2. As tests continued to come back positive, NCDP officials say they took a proactive approach and worked with the Department of Health and Human Services, the State Laboratory for Public Health, LabCorp and the Wayne County Health Department in the major effort.
To help staff, and maintain the appropriate security levels over the weekend, Prisons’ Incident Command team members took the following actions:
- Temporarily closed Johnston Correctional in Smithfield and transferred approximately 600 offenders to Southern Correctional Institution in Troy and to the Burke Confinement in Response to Violation Center in Morganton.
- Transported around 100 offenders from Southern CI to Tabor Correctional Institution in Columbus County to make room for the incoming offenders from Johnston Correctional.
These moves were mostly made on Saturday and allowed for the majority of staff at the Johnston facility to be reassigned to Neuse Correctional, located about 23 miles away, according to officials.
According to NCDP, all transported offenders were medically screened, including temperature checks, before they were transported and when they arrived at their destinations. Upon their arrival, they were all placed under 14-day medical quarantine and did not mix with the existing offender population.
“No offenders from Neuse or any of those exhibiting any symptoms were transferred,” Commissioner Ishee said. “These very strategic moves were done in consultation with medical experts and completed by following CDC guidelines.”
The transportation vehicles were thoroughly cleaned before and after each trip. The offenders and staff were all given face masks and the transfers were completed without incident.
The Johnston Correctional Institution staff should start arriving to help their colleagues at Neuse Correctional Institution over the next few days. The staff reassigned to Neuse Correctional Institution will receive supplemental pay while on this assignment, officials say.
Prison officials say a truckload of PPE was delivered to the Neuse facility on Saturday as five portable, large-scale disinfectant-dispersal units called Power Breezers were used to clean the facility from top to bottom.
In addition, NCDP has taken more 36 actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the prisons, and to contain it within a facility if it does spread.
Some of those actions include:
- Provided extra soap and disinfecting supplies and required additional cleaning regimens.
- Increased Correction Enterprises production of washable cloth face masks. Approximately 79,000 have been produced so far. Masks have been made and distributed to staff and offenders in all 52 facilities.
- Extending the moratorium on the acceptance of offenders from the county jails through May 3 with support of the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association.
- Continuing the suspension of visitation, offender outside work assignments and offender home leaves for another 30 days, until May 16.
