NC Prisons

Prison advocate groups call for the release of nearly 2,000 incarcerated people to ease overcrowding, improve conditions after the temporary closure of four western North Carolina prisons.

Nearly 40% of North Carolina correctional officer positions are vacant. And thousands of beds at prisons across the state are closed because there aren’t enough certified officers to cover them.

An estimated 80% of people reentering the community from prison are newly eligible for Medicaid. Expanded coverage could boost reentry success as people have more consistent medical care.

Prison commissary prices are soaring in North Carolina, leaving incarcerated people and their families struggling.

Advocates hope to see the North Carolina prison system grant more medical release to ease the burden of an aging prison population and to give families time with loved ones before death.

Lack of access to mental health care inside North Carolina's prisons has an increasing number of advocates worried about a looming crisis.

Framing MAT in jails as an Americans with Disabilities Act issue is prompting a shift in how the treatment is managed with jails now more willing to sort out the logistics.

Some prison residents are being vaccinated, and there is a plan in place in case of an outbreak, an official says.

About 98 percent of people incarcerated in North Carolina return home, including those convicted of sex crimes, but placement on the public sex offender registry is a life sentence.

Defense lawyer John Phillips says Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was taken from a federal medical center in Fort Worth, Texas, to a federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina, last week.