North Carolina Department of Correction
Polk Youth Institution
Correction officers ready for move to new prison
Andrew Benson Teresa Rogers Richard Hicks |
For the last 30 years, Polk Youth Institution's
staff have heard their prison would soon close. They are now counting the
last days at the old facility on Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh and preparing
to move to a new $43 million, 1,000-bed facility north of Durham in the
Granville County community of Butner.
"We can't make it new, but we try to make it comfortable," says Andrew Benson who has worked in maintenance at Polk since 1980 and plans to retire when the old unit closes. "Other folks are getting trained on the new facility. I'm staying here with the facility I know." "The new prison will be a stricter place," says Teresa Rogers, a new correctional officer. "It will be different. In the old prison we unlock cell doors with keys. In the new prison, doors are opened from remote control centers."
One of the biggest changes Hicks saw during his career was the elimination of triple bunking at Polk in March 1994. "Tempers flared and morale was bad, but that changed when triple bunking was eliminated," Hicks said. "It broke the tension and employees felt more comfortable." During Hicks career, he's seen a number of superintendents running Polk. Before Currie, there was Tom Carroll, Gary Dixon, Max Barber and Bob King. Two years after arriving at Polk, Hicks says staff were called together to hear an announcement that Polk would close. He says its taken 26 years, but the unit is closing. |
Correction managers looking forward
to new facility
Correction officers ready for move to new prison
Polk quick facts
Tour the new Polk Youth Institution
Polk built with new construction techniques
Tour the old Polk Youth Institution
Polk prisoner assignments
Polk Youth Institution's school