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Read the full NC prison investigation: Wrong side of the bars?

Charlotte Observer - 6/2/2017

June 02--A Charlotte Observer special report on corruption inside NC prisons -- and the officers who fuel it

A Charlotte Observer investigation found that a hidden world of drugs, sex and gang violence thrives inside North Carolina's prisons -- and that officers who are paid to prevent such corruption are instead fueling it. Prison officers frequently team up with inmates on crimes that endanger staff members, inmates and the public.

The newspaper's five-part investigation found that some officers run lucrative contraband rings inside prisons. Others have sex with inmates. Still others beat shackled prisoners, or team up with gang members to allow brutal attacks.

State leaders, meanwhile, have created the very conditions that allow corruption to flourish.

Part 1: Sex, drugs and cellphones

--Secret gesture, bloody shanks: Did prison officials allow this deadly attack?

--How your tax dollars fund sex, drugs and abuse in NC prisons

--This NC prison manager is accused of helping inmates attack other prisoners

--Here's how NC could fight corruption in prisons

--How we reported the prison series

--13 commonly used prison slang terms

Part 2: Plotting a crime on a cellphone

--From solitary confinement, a gang leader used a smuggled cellphone to order a killing

--How NC prisons make life too easy for officers who smuggle drugs, cellphones

Part 3: Who's guarding the guards?

--They had violent pasts and gang ties. Then they became prison officers

--NC prison officer planned to behead 2 people. Then the FBI stepped in.

--Under suspicion, prison officer resigns -- then gets rehired

--Inadequate training puts prison officers -- and inmates -- in danger

Part 4: When officers attack

--Inmates say officers handcuffed them, then broke their bones

--Officers allegedly made inmates put skin-blistering hot sauce on their genitals

--Abused inmates 'have no one to go to' because of budget cuts

Part 5: Sexual affairs threaten safety

--Prison employee accused of giving her lover cologne, steroids -- and a poodle

--Inmate says prison employee was his lover and drug smuggler

--Stacey the prison poodle

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(c)2017 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.com

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