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By Jasmine Laws
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A detention center takeover in eastern North Carolina has enhanced long-standing concerns that prisons and jails across the United States are increasingly difficult to operate safely because of chronic staffing shortages—an issue federal watchdogs have repeatedly identified as a systemic risk.
Early on Monday, inmates at the Bertie-Martin Regional Detention Center in Windsor overpowered correctional staff and seized control of parts of the facility, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
This follows years of warnings as officials across the country have raised alarms that chronic staffing shortages are straining prison systems. A Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General report from 2023 found that 21 percent of authorized correctional officer positions were unfilled, forcing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to rely on non-custody staff—including teachers, nurses and cooks—to guard housing units.
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In North Carolina alone, about one in four state prisons have 50 percent or more of their correctional officer positions vacant, according to December 2025 data from the Department of Adult Correction provided to North Carolina Health News.
Lawmakers have said the shortages are contributing to staff burnout, increased tensions among inmates and instances of violence. They say it also means that inmates are experiencing reduced access to health care and other crucial services.
Newsweek contacted North Carolina Governor Josh Stein and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation for comment via email outside regular working hours.
What Happened in North Carolina?
Authorities said 88 inmates and three guards were inside the jail when the disturbance began around 5 a.m. Two guards were taken hostage, while the third escaped.
More than four hours later, negotiations allowed the safe release of 18 inmates and the two guard hostages. The state bureau later said, "All inmates and staff are safe and accounted for, and those who sustained injuries have received treatment."
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The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said the incident has ended, but that "inmates have been transferred to other facilities for housing, and the detention center will remain secured while personnel assess the extent of the damage." Authorities have not said what caused the takeover, and the investigation remains ongoing.
The Bertie County Sheriff's Office told Newsweek: "Staffing issues and conditions of the jail, if any, would have to be learned through the process of the investigation. As this investigation continues, we hope to answer more questions."
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein wrote on social media: "I am relieved that the officers on duty are now safe and that the situation is stabilized. The perpetrators must be held accountable for this horrifying action."
In what appeared to be a reference to staffing issues, he added that the state must "do everything in our power to ensure this doesn't happen again—and that includes doing more to recruit, retain, and compensate the county and state officials who are charged with keeping our jails and prisons safe."
North Carolina Staff Shortfall Almost 49 Precent
The incident follows months of warnings that North Carolina's correctional system is in a staffing crisis.
The state has seen several inmate attacks with fatal consequences. In 2017 alone, inmates killed four corrections employees during a failed escape attempt in Pasquotank Correctional Institution, while another died in an attack at Bertie Correctional Institution.
Investigations found that staffing issues played a central role in the tragedies. At the time, correctional officer vacancy rates at the two prisons ranged from roughly 20 percent to 28 percent, according to a report by The Charlotte Observer.
Leslie Cooley Dismukes, North Carolina's secretary of the Department of Adult Correction, also told lawmakers in January that the department employed 4,979 correctional officers but needed 9,682 officers to fully staff all posts across the state's 55 prisons—a shortfall of 4,703 positions, or nearly 49 percent.
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Jail Staffing Issues Nationwide
The problem extends beyond North Carolina. The DOJ's Office of Inspector General has identified staffing shortages as one of the most critical challenges facing the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The watchdog said those issues put inmates, employees and the public at risk.
As a result, in July 2025, legislation also provided $5 billion in supplemental bureau funding through 2029, including $3 billion for hiring and training new employees to address staffing issues.
However, it seems the issue is not only about hiring more correctional employees but also about retaining existing staff. House Judiciary Democrats warned in February that shortages were leading to burnout and weaker emergency response, and a 2025 strike in New York suggests some correctional officers are leaving their roles as a result.
On February 17, 2025, thousands of New York state correctional officers began a three-week strike in opposition to poor working conditions. Governor Kathy Hochul had to deploy the National Guard into prisons, and more than 2,000 correctional officers who walked off their positions and did not return by a deadline were fired. The state later had to release inmates because of issues with staffing levels.
"Corrections has for years now experienced an extreme staffing crisis," Hayden Smith, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, told Newsweek.
He said that the reasons are "complex," but a significant factor has been the "mass retiring of the baby boomer generation." This has left prisons and jails "with drastically short staffing which comprises security, programs, visitation, education, and health care," he said.
"There is not a single element of corrections not harmed by low staffing," he added. Without correctional officers, he said, "the system fails."
He said that in some cases, a lack of officers means that inmates are "locked in cells for days, weeks, even months at a time," which he said "creates frustration, aggression, and aggravates preexisting mental health symptoms."
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In 2018, a riot at South Carolina's Lee Correctional Institution saw seven prisoners killed and another 20 injured, and investigations pointed to staffing shortages and faulty door locks as reasons the incident was unable to unfold.
Investigators have not concluded that staffing issues caused Monday's takeover in North Carolina. But as only three officers were on duty with 88 inmates at the time, the incident has shone a light on the nationwide issue of chronically understaffed correctional systems and the challenges of safely managing these high-pressure environments.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Shakeema Edwards.
Update 6/30/26, 12:03 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Hayden Smith.
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