Press Releases

Corrections and law enforcement officers are seeking inmate Stephen Singleton who escaped from New Hanover Correctional Center this morning.  Singleton was discovered missing after a 5 a.m. count and is believed to have scaled a fence to leave the prison. Singleton, 34, was serving sentences for habitual misdemeanor assault and larceny and was due for release in January 2018.  He is from the Wilmington area.
Event at Brunswick Plant Posed No Public Threat RALEIGH – Last night Duke Energy notified the emergency management agencies for the state, Brunswick and New Hanover counties of a damaged motor pump at the Brunswick Nuclear Plant near Southport. The utility declared an Alert in accordance with procedures but resumed regular operations soon thereafter. It is important to know that at no time during the brief incident was there any risk to public health or safety.
The Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice has named David Mitchell as the director of its Mountain Region prisons, overseeing 15 prison facilities in western North Carolina.
SALISBURY – The Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice has named Joseph Valliere as the new administrator at Piedmont Correctional Institution in Salisbury.    Valliere has served as the assistant superintendent for custody and operations at Piedmont CI since 2012.  He is a 24 –year corrections veteran who began work as an officer at Davie Correctional Center in 1992.  He transferred to Piedmont CI in 1995 and advanced through the ranks there as a sergeant, lieutenant and captain.
The N.C. Center for Safer Schools today sponsored the first ever Crisis Intervention Team-Youth training for law enforcement at an all-day training session in Chapel Hill. This eight-hour CIT-Youth class seeks to build upon the standard 40-hour CIT program that provides officers with the skills and knowledge to de-escalate persons in crisis and emphasizes treatment rather than jail for people showing signs of mental illness.
The State Highway Patrol is seeking the public’s assistance in locating the driver and/or vehicle that fatally struck and killed a 41-year old Spring Lake man as he walked along a Harnett County Road during the early morning hours of Monday, July 4.   At approximately 3:30 a.m. on Monday, July 4, 2016, the State Highway Patrol received a call from the Harnett County Sheriff’s Department reference the discovery of a deceased male lying in the roadway on Sandfer Road just south of the city limits of Lillington.  
The Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice has named Harvey Clay as the new administrator at Lumberton Correctional Institution. He assumed his new duties this week.
The Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice has named Carlos Hernandez as the new superintendent at Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution in Spruce Pine.
The Department of Public Safety and the Greene County Sheriff’s Department are investigating the apparent suicide of an inmate at Maury Correctional Institution.   Inmate Robert Diadone #0926346 was found unresponsive in his cell this morning shortly before 9 a.m.  Prison medical staff and EMS were unable to revive the inmate and he was pronounced dead at 9:47 am.
WHAT: The Governor’s Task Force on Safer Schools provides guidance to the N.C. Center for Safer Schools and considers future policy and legislative action that is needed to improve school safety in North Carolina.  WHEN: Thursday, June 30, 2016; 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.  WHERE: Crowne Plaza Asheville 1 Resort Drive, Asheville 28806 Crowne Ballroom “Mitchell” and “Roan”