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| Scott Peele, Randy Lee, Mary Beth Carroll and Loris Sutton at work in the Central Command post during Hurricane Irene. |
Many in the command center were answering phones keeping track of damage reports and power and phone outages at prisons. In the background, voices could be heard over the VIPER radio from staff at facilities that had no other way to communicate. Employees in the command center were documenting all the needs and who was responding on a white board or flip charts.
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| Cynthia Bostic |
“It was what some might call controlled chaos,” said Bostic. “We all really had to be focused on the tasks to be done and at the same time keep an ear open to other things happening that may impact our plans.”
Bostic has been the division’s assistant director of Support Services for one year. This was her first time working in the command center in this capacity. One of her many duties on a normal basis is to supervise the population management section which directs the admission and movement of inmates. That was a key issue to stay on top of when three prisons had to be evacuated.
The division had already evacuated Hyde Correctional Institution and Tyrrell Prison Work Farm on Friday using about 40 buses from a dozen prisons from as far as Charlotte and transferring approximately 1,300 inmates to ten different prisons.
Then on Saturday, during the height of the storm, the command center’s activity level soared. Managers decided, after very careful review, to evacuate Pamlico Correction Institution, which meant correctional staff would need to move an additional 620 inmates.
The Central Command had many logistics to work out— which facilities could take these inmates; which prisons could provide buses, drivers and correctional staff to help move the inmates; and the Prison Emergency Response Team (PERT) would need to be activated to provide security for the inmate transport.
“The energy level at the command center rose because we all knew we had to get this done,” said Bostic. She described how staff really took charge of their roles. She said they showed leadership and tenacity.
Approximately 16 hours after the decision was made to evacuate Pamlico CI, the first of the 17 buses pulled out headed to prisons in Salisbury, Maxton, Nashville, Butner and Raleigh. Several hours later, the Central Command received word that the last bus had arrived at its destination and all the inmates had been transported safely and without incident.
Bostic said, “We could not have done this without a massive amount of teamwork. The Central Command, the other two command centers, the staff at the evacuated prisons, the staff at the prisons who took in additional inmates, the bus drivers, the correctional staff and PERT members who provided security, the maintenance crews, engineers, Correction Enterprises, the warehouse, the medical staff and everybody in between all played an important role.”
