Despite Building Boom, N.C. Short on Prison Beds

RALEIGH , N.C. — North Carolina has opened five state correctional facilities since 1999 and three 1,000-bed facilities are under construction, but the state is still in need of more room for inmates, according to the North Carolina Sentencing Commission.

The inmate population increase is projected to occur while the state’s civilian population grows. There are currently about 38,000 inmates filling state prisons. During the last three months of 2005, counties held 4,774 state prisoners for at least six days. The state spent $1.7 million to pay the counties $40 a day per inmate during that time span.

The state is in need of more medium- and minimum-security facilities as convictions for lower-level felonies increase and serious felony convictions decline. A proposal was introduced last summer to spend at least $21.9 million to add about 784 prison beds.