Editorial: Berger and Moore's political posturing shames sacrifice of late N.C. prison workers

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017 -- The statement issued by the state's two top legislative leaders in response to the brutal assault by inmates at the Pasquotank Correctional Institution that left four prison workers dead was inflammatory and irrelevant. It dishonored the ultimate sacrifice the workers made on behalf of the state and its people.

Posted 10:00 a.m. Dec 13, 2017 — Updated 11:19 a.m. Dec 13, 2017

Editor's note: Cartoon courtesy of Kevin Siers, the Charlotte Observer

CBC Editorial: Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017; Editorial # 8247

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

Cynical and shameful.

That is a generous assessment of the statement issued by North Carolina’s two top legislative leaders in response to the brutal assault by inmates at the Pasquotank Correctional Institution that left four prison workers dead.

It was inflammatory and irrelevant. It dishonored the ultimate sacrifice Veronica Darden, Geoff Howe, Wendy Shannon and Justin Smith made on behalf of the state and its people.

In a crass political way, the statement was intended to divert attention from the real challenges in the state’s prisons and the responsibility that rests at the feet of the legislature headed by Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore.

Berger and Moore’s call on Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein to “restart” the death penalty was pathetic. Regardless of how anybody feels about capital punishment (Cooper and Stein, by the way, support it), it will do NOTHING to help make our prisons any more secure or help to make it safer for guards and other personnel who have to work inside them.

Berger and Moore, both lawyers, well know it. They know it is the lengthy appeals process that has more to do with determining if and when there might be executions than anything Cooper or Stein might do.

Those who work on the front lines inside prisons know the problems best. Earlier this year North Carolina corrections officers clearly identified those critical needs in a survey commissioned by the state Department of Justice.

Chronic staff shortages often result in prison security officers being dangerously outnumbered – conditions that allow easier access for contraband ranging from cellphones to illegal drugs and weapons. Even though the inmate population dropped by 3,000 in the state’s prisons -- assaults on prison staff have risen 50 percent in the last five years.

Prison officers are leaving jobs faster than they can be replaced. Too many of those on the job – 39 percent of those questioned in the DOJ report – say they want to quit. Seventy-one percent said their agency doesn’t make an active effort to retain staff.

If Berger and Moore were truly interested in the safety of those who work inside our prisons they’d have long ago ended their war on state employees.

Too much akin to the state’s ranking in teacher and school administrator pay, North Carolina ranks near the bottom nationally in correctional officer average pay – 43rd.

None of the corrections employees who sacrificed their lives last month had annual salaries exceeding the $48,600 income level that qualifies a family of four for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (Food Stamps).

Inside the prison, too many corrections officers are put to work without appropriate or adequate training. Too often they’re given equipment that doesn’t work properly.

Rather than looking for ways to pass the blame, Berger, Moore and the veto-proof legislature they control should set politics aside and get to work with the governor and Public Safety Secretary Erik Hooks.

While Cooper and Hooks could easily whine and blame the legislature’s failures, they have instead been taking constructive steps, including a thorough review of corrections procedures and policies by the National Institute of Corrections. Secretary Hooks has visited numerous state prisons to talk with corrections officers and employees and see the challenges first-hand.

These are problems that need to be addressed soon – with solutions that can be enacted during the spring’s short legislative session.

A cooperative and coordinated approach – a sound business-like way to address the security and safety concerns will work far better than ideologically-driven, unproductive bickering and empty efforts of political one upmanship.

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