Hurricane Dorian: North Carolina Prison Phone Zap

Fight Toxic Prisons is amplifying the following phone zap from organizers on the ground in North Carolina. Send updates to FTPDisasterPrep@gmail.com

As Hurricane Dorian hits the southeast, we prepare ourselves and our communities on both sides of the walls. More than half of the state’s prisons are located in areas currently projected to be impacted to some degree by Hurricane Dorian. Last year during Hurricane Florence, we heard reports from people in North Carolina’s prisons of haphazard evacuations, insufficient supplies of water and inadequate sanitation in the wake of the storm. We demand that people inside North Carolina’s prisons be provided with preparations for safety during the storm, that their facilities be adequately stocked and prepared for loss of power, water and sanitation, and that the North Carolina Department of Public Safety be accountable to the families and communities of people inside the state’s prisons by sharing the details of their plans and providing all necessary resources for families and friends to locate and check on the safety of their loved ones before, during and after the storm.

Please call the following numbers to let NC DPS know that when we prepare for these storms, we include everyone in our community, and that we will hold them accountable for ensuring the safety of people in the state’s prisons.

NC DPS is on the following social media platforms:
Twitter: @NCPublicSafety
Instagram: @ncpublicsafety
Facebook: facebook.com/NCPublicSafety

Director of Prisons Kenneth Lassiter               
Call the Switchboard Line 919-733-2126, Ask to speak to Director Lassiter’s Office

kenneth.lassiter@ncdps.gov

Eastern Region Office – Prisons
Director: Larry Dail
Greenville, N.C.
Phone: (252) 830-3466
Fax: (252) 830-8520

South Central Region Office – Prisons
Director: Peter Buchholtz
McCain, N.C.
Phone: (910) 944-2359
Fax: (910) 944-7034

Central Region Office – Prisons
Director: Cynthia Thornton
Raleigh, N.C.
Phone: (919) 582-6125
Fax: (919) 715-4179

NC DPS Communications Office
Phone: 919-733-5027
Fax: 919-733-0296

If you’d like, share your relationship to North Carolina’s prisons – as a friend or family member of someone inside, as someone who has been incarcerated in NC, as a concerned community member. Share why it is important to you to call and make sure that NC DPS is accountable for the safety of people in prison during this and other hurricanes.

We demand that NC DPS:
1) Safely evacuate all people in NC prisons that are in evacuation zones, and release information on these evacuations.

2) Ensure that all facilities in North Carolina are prepared for the days after a storm, including having a more than adequate supply of food and water for all people in the prison, and with enough port-o-potties and other necessary sanitation equipment for the number of people in each facility. These preparations should be shared with the community the way other state preparations are to be transparent and accountable.

3) Provide a press release and information on the DPS website making it clear how family and friends can locate and check on loved ones in the event that they are evacuated or their facilities lose power from the storm.