By Chris Cowperthwaite
NBC17

One of the departments hardest hit by Gov. Perdue’s budget cuts will be the state prison system.

Department of Correction officials say the budget will cost them 500 jobs over the next two years and force them to close seven prisons.

The closings will certainly have an effect on some small towns like Butner.

The word “prison” usually conjures images of stark walls and rows of razor wire, but Butner’s minimum security prison isn’t quite as foreboding.

In fact, the idea of losing the Umstead Correctional Center doesn’t sit well with a lot of people in town.

“We’re accustomed to the facility,” said Mayor Tom Lane. “It’s been a part of the community and we have real concerns.”

Umstead houses more than 100 inmates, and employs 45 people.

Next year, though, the governor plans to shut it down, along with six other facilities around North Carolina.

“It means a loss of some jobs. People that we know as Butner citizens,” said Lane. “People that we want to be a part of their life and they’re part of ours.”

“We will be able to replace, we hope, most of those folks in vacancies at other prisons,” said Keith Acree, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections. “We can’t guarantee that we can do that for everyone, but we’re certainly going to make that effort.”

The goal is to reduce the department’s budget by about $68 million, and consolidating everything will mean that inmates in Butner and other places will have to be transferred elsewhere.

“We have to double-cell inmates in certain locations,” said Acree. “So there’s quite a bit of work we have to do in terms of population management to make this all work.”

Acree says 500 jobs sounds like a lot, but he also points out that the prison system employs more than 20,000 people statewide.

The budget wasn’t all bad news for the Department of Correction.

In addition to the cuts, there are also some budget increases.

Those include $12 million for the probation system, which will help hire 117 new officers, 29 new supervisors and increase pay for current officers.

By Kim Genardo
NBC17

RALEIGH, N.C. — State agencies continue to slash budgets and it could have an impact on keeping our highways clean.

The community work crew program could get eliminated to help the Department Of Correction meet its 2009-11 budget cuts.

“We’ll make every effort to try and keep those community work crews in place because they are so valuable to counties, cities and towns that use them for labor,” said department spokesperson Keith Acree.

The move would cut costs by $4.7 million and eliminate 127 correction officers’ jobs.

The DOC must reduce its 2009-11 budget by 7 percent or $90 million.

Other options include closing as many as seven minimum security correctional facilities, including Umstead in Butner.

The town’s Mayor Tom Lane said the correctional facility is a vital part of the community.

The inmates provide labor for state and local institutions.

“Our local water and sewer authority depends very heavily on their workers,” said Mayor Lane.