NC officials say closing of 5 prisons complete

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina correction officials say they've closed five additional prisons since the summer in keeping with the state budget and fewer inmates.

Officials with the state Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice said Thursday that prisons with more than 1,900 inmate beds in Duplin, Robeson, Bladen, Wayne and Burke counties are closed. They include the Western Youth Institution in Morganton, with more than 700 beds.

Inmates were relocated to other prisons. The division says more than 85 percent of the 560 people working at the closing prisons found other work within the division's Department of Public Safety. Eighteen people retired or resigned, while 61 others couldn't be placed in other work and received severance pay.

North Carolina now has 61 prisons.

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