10/10/16 — Prison evacuated due to flooding

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Prison evacuated due to flooding

By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 10, 2016 5:33 PM

Neuse Correctional Institution was evacuated Monday due to flooding from Hurricane Matthew, according to a press release from the North Carolina Joint Information Center.

The release said 797 inmates were evacuated and relocated to other facilities within the state prison system Monday morning by bus.

Keith Acree, spokesperson for the Division of Adult Corrections, said inmates began being taken away by buses around 7 a.m. Monday morning, and the last bus rolled out around 12 p.m.

"We took them to other prisons, and for security reasons we aren't being real specific about where," Acree said. "They were divided between two prisons in the western part of the state."

Acree said the evacuation happened to prevent employees from being stuck at the facility as flooding worsened.

"The projections were that the flooding wouldn't get inside, but we didn't want to take that chance," Acree said. "There was about six inches of water in the driveway this morning when the buses pulled out."

Neuse Correctional Institution is a minimum-security facility housing juvenile and adult males, and sits near the confluence of the Little River and the Neuse River.

Acree said inmates were taken from the facility in 16 total buses, and the evacuation spanned several hours.

"We need to get them out of there because if they stayed they would have been isolated," Acree said.

Acree said projections showed the dormitories for the inmates remaining about a foot above the flooding.

He could not say when the inmates would be returned to Neuse Correctional.

"That depends on when the water recedes and water on roads to and from the prison clears out," Acree said.