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DID YOU KNOW? Crisis in NC Prisons · The SEANC View

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  Hi, Artis Watkins with the State Employees Association in North Carolina with
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  another Did You Know About State Employees.
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  Today's is very serious. It's correctional officer starting salaries.
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  And that, you know, obviously it's important, but some things really drive home
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  why it's especially important.
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  And yesterday, an offender who was part of an escape attempt at Pasquotank Correctional
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  in 2017 was convicted of the murders of four of those correctional personnel.
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  Justin Smith, Wendy Shannon, Jeffrey Howe, and Veronica Darden.
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  They lost their lives that day in a prison that didn't have enough staff.
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  But the number of staff they had that day in 2017 is more percentage-wise than
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  what our average is across the board in our prisons right now.
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  What's going on? Well, part of it is what we pay compared to what our neighboring states pay.
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  Average starting salary in Tennessee is $51,000 and some change.
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  In Virginia, it's $46,000 and some change. In South Carolina,
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  $43,000 and some change.
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  Oh, and I know Georgia's a neighbor too. They're at $44,000 and some change.
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  But North Carolina, we are at $37,621.
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  That's all for a beginning correctional officer salary.
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  We are third from the lowest paid in the nation for our folks.
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  Now, why do you want to come risk your life in our prisons when this is a situation?
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  The department is doing everything they can think to do. They're down to hiring
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  18-year-olds as correctional officers.
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  They're hiring people part-time now.
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  This is serious, and it's not just serious as we saw with Passport Tank, it's deadly.
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  That's what I need you to know.