Five correctional staffers were killed in separate brutal murders at Pasquotank and Bertie correctional institutions in 2017.

Subsequent investigations revealed that understaffing played a central role in the chaos.

Eight years later, the vacancy crisis in our prisons has only worsened -- roughly 1 in 4 prisons has more than half of its correctional officer positions currently vacant.

SEANC President Wendell Powell and Executive Director Ardis Watkins spelled out the dire conditions at state prisons in a story this week from NC Health News.

"The way those prisons were staffed when those murders happened is the average way prisons are staffed now," said Watkins. "What we thought were terrible vacancy rates eight years ago are pretty average right now."

Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Cooley Dismukes described the situation as "dire" to legislators at a recent Joint Oversight Committee hearing, saying that nearly half of staff positions at prisons are vacant. The key reason behind the vacancies? Low salaries.

"Our vacancy rates have grown higher and remain at unsustainable levels, leaving us with fewer staff to run safe prisons," she said. "This problem has compounded year over year, as salaries of our employees have not kept up with the cost of living, much less the market rate."

Dismukes is scheduled to join The SEANC View podcast next week for an in-depth conversation on this and other issues in her department. Be sure to tune in.