*Council Objectives*
• To serve as liaison between the correctional facility and community by opening channels of communication and creating interest to produce positive citizen involvement.
• To establish wholesome public awareness of, and an appreciation throughout the community for, the programs, mission, goals, objectives, and staff of correctional facilities.
• To assist in recruiting and t
raining of individuals to serve as volunteers.
• To explore and recruit support from institutions, agencies, organizations, and businesses, to donate funds, materials, and/or services utilized to carry out various programs and/or activities adopted by the Council and approved by the unit superintendents/administrators.
• To assist in the process of the reintegration of inmates as they return to the community
North Carolina’s first permanent county prison was constructed in 1915 in New Hanover County. A two-story concrete building was erected in 1915 to house 200 county prisoners. Equipped with electricity, modern plumbing and central heating, the facility was thought to have begun a new age in prison construction and design. Inmates slept on cots in two large rooms, one for each race, separated by a guard room. The prison was remodeled in 1928 and expanded to house 250 inmates. New Hanover was one of 51 county prisons for which the state assumed responsibility with the passage of the Conner bill in 1931. It was one of 61 field unit prisons renovated or built during the late 1930s to house inmates who worked building roads. Two modular dormitories added in 1978 have since been closed. In the 1987 Emergency Prison Facilities Development program, lawmakers provided for a 50 bed dormitory for New Hanover. Another 250 beds were included in the $55 million prison construction program authorized in 1989. Inmates moved into the first 50 bed dorm in 1988 and the other dorms in 1992. Prison engineers supervised inmates in remodeling the prison’s original building to provide classrooms and office space which was opened by the fall of l994. An 18 bed dormitory at the prison provides administrative and disciplinary segregation space for minimum custody inmates needing to be segregated. New Hanover currently serves as a minimum security prison for adult males. New Hanover Correctional has a capacity to house 400 inmates.
