McCain Celebrates Anniversary

Michael F. Easley Governor		Theodis Beck Secretary
North Carolina Department of Correction

For Release: MEDIA ADVISORY	Contact: Mike Stater
Date: Sept. 23, 2008	Phone: 919 -716-3700

McCain Correctional Hospital celebrates anniversary RAEFORD – McCain Correctional Hospital will celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the opening of the North Carolina Sanatorium and the 25^th anniversary of the opening of McCain Correctional Hospital on Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 1 p.m. A ceremony will be held on the hospital’s front lawn, featuring remarks by Department of Correction officials and Mrs. Betty Ray McCain, daughter-in-law of former superintendent Dr. Paul McCain. There also will be a display of historical photographs and artifacts and a DVD presentation showing a brief history. Refreshments will be served. The facility first opened in 1908 as the state's first tuberculosis sanatorium in an area now known as McCain in Cumberland County (reformed as Hoke County in 1911). The name changed to McCain Hospital in 1973 and was placed under the Department of Health and Human Services. The property was deeded over to the Division of Prisons in October 1983. The name then became McCain Correctional Hospital. The correctional hospital has both acute care and skilled nursing care beds with the medical ancillary services of laboratory, X-ray, respiratory therapy and pharmacy. There is a medical staff of more than 135 persons including four full-time physicians. There are 60 acute, skilled nursing and infirmary beds, plus, on a separate floor, 222 beds dedicated to the disabled, elderly and others whose medical condition requires a nursing home-type environment. The prison, under the direction of Administrator Sorrell Saunders, has an average population of 360 with approximately one-third of those being healthy inmates who work in maintaining various operations. Inmates are assigned jobs, such as working on a community work squad, kitchen or maintenance help or janitors. # # #