N.C. Correctional Institution for Women

County: Wake
Mailing Address: 4287 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4287
Street Address: 1034 Bragg Street, Raleigh, NC 27610
Phone: 919-733-4340
 

Inmate capacity: 1,776
Inmate gender: Female
Custody level: Close/Medium/Minimum
Year opened: 1938

The North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh is the state's primary correctional facility for women. It houses the largest offender population in the state and serves as the support facility for the state's other female prisons. The campus-style facility sits on 30 acres of a 190-acre tract of state land in southeast Raleigh. NCCIW houses offenders of all custody levels and control statuses, including death row, maximum, close, medium, minimum and safekeepers. It provides the primary medical, mental, and alcohol and chemical dependency treatment for female offenders.

The facility operates a diagnostic center that serves as the point of entry into the prison system for women. Upon arrival, offenders undergo a series of diagnostic evaluations that will determine future prison assignments.

Some of the programs available to NCCIW offenders include:

Correction Enterprises license tag plant
Correction Enterprises duplicating and quick copy plant
Dental lab
N.C. Travel and Tourism Information Call Center
High School Equivalency Testing
Office technology
Cosmetology
Horticulture
Job Start
Job for Life (Reentry)
Mothers and Their Children (MATCH)
Alcohol/Chemical Dependency Program
MotherREAD

Offenders may attend worship services in the Chapel of the Nameless Woman and participate in Bible studies or other religious programs offered by prison chaplains, Prison Fellowship and other religious volunteers and organizations.

VISITATION

Please visit www.ncdps.gov/Adult-Corrections/Prisons/Visitation for visitation rules.

HISTORY

The prison originally served as a road camp for male offenders who worked on highway projects. Women offenders were transferred to the Bragg Street site in 1933, while women's living quarters at Central Prison were under renovation. Offenders were initially housed in two large double-tier, barrack style cell blocks. Each building was designed to accommodate 160 offenders. Other buildings on the site were a dining hall, converted infirmary, auditorium and administration building.

Rather than return women offenders to Central Prison, the State Highway and Public Works Commission announced plans in the mid-1930s to begin the construction of a women's prison on the cottage plan in the immediate future. The project never got beyond the planning stage. The prison eventually supported a farming and canning operation that continued through the 1950s.

Central Prison administrators managed the prison until 1938, when the women's prison became a wholly separate institution. In 1942, Edna B. Strickland was named superintendent of the women's prison, becoming the state's first female prison superintendent. In 1996, the superintendent's position was elevated to that of warden, and Carol Caldwell became the state's first female warden.

The first improvements to the old road camp prison were made in the late 1940s and early 1950s. A $1 million construction program added four cottage-style dormitories, an auditorium, segregation unit, sewing plant, cannery, laundry, kitchen and dining hall, and administration building.

In 1986, an aggressive construction and renovation plan began with the funding for a 28-bed infirmary and outpatient medical services building. Over the next seven years, lawmakers funded approximately $25 million to replace or renovate deteriorated buildings and, as part of the prison's master plan, add buildings and support services necessitated by offender population growth. Construction at the prison continued into the 1990s. The funded master plan included six new dormitories, mental health facility, 48-cell maximum security building, operations building and gatehouse, security perimeter fence and lighting, as well as other infrastructure and support services construction and renovations.

In June 1975, there was an riot at the prison because of a work stoppage in the laundry. After four days, the prison was returned to routine operation, but the laundry was permanently closed.

DIRECTIONS

In Raleigh, take New Bern Avenue to Tarboro Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard and turn right. The unit will be to the left. Turn onto Coleman Street and make an immediate left into the prison's parking lot.

From I-40, take exit 300 at Rock Quarry Road. Take Rock Quarry Road to the intersection with Martin Luther King Boulevard and turn left. The unit will be to the left. Turn onto Coleman Street and make an immediate left into the prison's parking lot.