North Carolina's prisons have a hard time hiring correctional officers for a demanding job with a salary that tops out around $54,000 annually.
And with a detailed hiring process that averages 49 days, it's not uncommon for would-be-hires to go frustrated and start working somewhere else where they can start receiving paychecks more quickly.
To fix that, the N.C. Department of Adult Correction and N.C. State Human Resources have worked together to develop a conditional hire program at three prisons. The program allows people to start working while they are awaiting results of slower parts of the background process.
It's cut the time-to-hire at Central Prison, Harnett Correctional Institute and Pasquotank Correctional Institute down to about 35 days.
"Fewer people are dropping out of the hiring process along the way," Leslie Dismukes, the secretary of the N.C. Department of Adult Correction, said during a press conference this week.
The certification process for correctional officers includes a background check, professional reference checks, a medical exam, a drug test and a psychological screening. The psychological screening is the last piece and can take about two weeks for results to come back, according to the Department of Adult Correction's website.
The department has also tweaked its recruitment efforts at those three facilities, with more paid advertising for positions and what Dismukes called "intentional social media" ads.
"We're bringing candidates into the pipeline who want stability, structure and solid benefits but who also feel called to serve," Dismukes said.
With the program in place, the state hired 43 people at Harnett Prison and 31 at Central Prison, exceeding hiring goals there. The department also hired 21 officers at Pasquotank, which hasn't yet reached its hiring goal.
While Dismukes and other Department of Adult Correction officials would like to expand the pilot to other state prisons, there are no imminent plans to start implementing it elsewhere.
Fixing pay concerns
Still, state officials say the biggest problem with hiring for its prisons — and keeping officers once they start — is that they simply do not pay enough.
North Carolina ranks 49th in how much it pays its correctional officers.
"Right now, we're asking people to put themselves in a very demanding albeit rewarding job, and asking their families to make sacrifices on our behalf as well, so that they can earn less money than they would if they worked at a Costco," said Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat.
Correctional officers in North Carolina earn between $37,621 for a starting officer at a minimum security facility to $54,078 for an officer with at least six years of experience at a close custody facility.
Dismukes noted that while North Carolina hired 1,530 correctional officers in 2025, the state actually ended the year with fewer positions filled.
"People are not staying on the job if they can't make ends meet and support their families at salaries that range from $18 to $25 an hour," Dismukes said.
There was a 24% turnover rate at the position, Dismukes added.
Capt. Derrick Simmons of the Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro said he's worked in state prisons for 28 years. A decade ago, he said, it was common to have 28 officers and five sergeants on a given shift.
Now, that has dwindled to seven or eight officers and three sergeants.
"Having fewer people working inside the institution means there are more things that you cannot see and cannot prevent. Things that you would not want to go on, they happen. Assaults increase. There's more extortion among offenders. In general, violence increases," Simmons said.
With fewer officers, medical trips outside the prison are frequently delayed and there is less rehabilitative work with prisoners.
"People are not as well prepared to be successful upon their release," Simmons said.
The budget framework announced by legislative Republicans earlier this month would offer correctional officers an average 15.4% raise, an amount that includes previously scheduled increases. The average correctional officer raise excluding the step increase would be about 13%.
Stein stressed that the budget needs to be passed into law before the promised raises can come to fruition.
"Every day without a budget is another day that correctional officers will keep scraping by, trying to keep people safe with half the manpower needed," Stein said.
General Assembly leaders have said they expect to vote on the full budget in mid-June.
