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North Carolina Creates New Prison Leadership Position

A unit inside Franklin Correctional Center in Bunn, N.C. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

North Carolina has created a new leadership position to oversee the state's troubled prison system.

Todd Ishee will become the state's first Commissioner of Prisons, effective June 24th.

The News and Observer reports that Ishee, currently a deputy director of Ohio's prison system, will supervise operations, health services, administration and prison programs. Ishee will also oversee Correction Enterprises, a Department of Public Safety division that employs inmates and runs industrial plants inside state prisons.

Correction Enterprises managed the sewing plant at Pasquotank Correctional Institution, where four prison workers were killed during a 2017 escape attempt.

DPS spokesman John Bull says Ishee brings with him almost 30 years of experience in corrections management. Bull acknowledges the North Carolina Division of Prisons is facing significant challenges, including prison reform, hiring, retention and health care issues.  

Bull says Ishee will evaluate prison operations and make recommendations to Tim Moose, who will become the state's chief deputy secretary of Adult Corrections and Juvenile Justice on Saturday.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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