Author: Keith Acree
The Sparrow dorm is one of three 250-bed dorms on the NCCIW campus receiving upgrades, including air conditioning, fire alarm system replacement, energy efficient LED lighting, recoated bathroom floors, plumbing repairs, installation of charging ports for tablets, and newly painted bunks and walls.
What began as a statewide project two years ago to install air-conditioning has improved to include other necessary upgrades to outdated life-safety systems and to implement cost saving energy efficiency measures.
“It just makes sense to address multiple critical issues while these dorms are vacant, and we have the people and resources in place to accomplish more than just the air conditioning work,” said Mark Johnson. NCDAC’s Senior Director of Engineering, Construction and Maintenance.
Similar strategies are being used at multiple locations across the state, allowing offenders to return to housing areas that are newly air conditioned, safer and more energy efficient.
With the hottest days of summer quickly approaching, fewer incarcerated people will be living in non air-conditioned spaces this summer. Currently 77 percent of NCDAC prison beds are in air-conditioned buildings and 23 percent of beds are not air-conditioned. Installation work is now underway at 11 prison facilities, using a combination of labor from incarcerated men in the NCDAC Construction Apprenticeship Program and private contractors.
If all goes according to plan, the summer of 2026 should be the last summer in the state prison system without all air-conditioned living spaces.
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