Craggy Correctional Center to close as staffing shortages persist

Craggy Correctional Center is being wound down in Asheville, and its closure is sharpening a bigger question for Buncombe County: can the state fill prison jobs in one of North Carolina’s most expensive labor markets?

The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction began the shutdown May 15, 2026, and says the medium- and minimum-security prison for adult men is set to close in late summer 2026. About 250 incarcerated men will be transferred to other state facilities over the next few months. The prison’s 77 employees will be offered positions at other NCDAC sites or work locations in Western North Carolina, softening the immediate impact for workers even as Asheville loses a longstanding correctional institution.

The closure lands in a county where housing, transportation and everyday expenses routinely outpace what many state jobs pay. NCDAC says North Carolina ranks 49th in starting salaries for correctional officers, and the department says low pay has fueled severe staffing shortages and high vacancy rates across the system. The average starting salary for prison jobs is just over $37,000, a figure officials say is not competitive in the Asheville area.

That staffing strain is not isolated to Craggy. NCDAC and the Office of State Human Resources have launched a pilot program in three state prisons aimed at reducing vacancies, a sign that the problem is now being managed as a systemwide retention issue rather than a single-facility problem. The state correctional system employed 13,990 permanent and probationary workers at the end of fiscal year 2023-24, underscoring how many jobs are affected when pay, vacancies and turnover begin to erode operations.

Gov. Josh Stein has also moved the issue into Raleigh’s budget debate. His March 9, 2026 Critical Needs Budget called for $211 million for NCDAC, including pay increases for correctional officers, probation and parole officers, nurses and behavioral health technicians, along with $80 million to erase the department’s structural budget shortfall. For Buncombe County, the closure of Craggy, which consolidated with Buncombe Correctional Center in March 2014, is another reminder that western North Carolina’s cost of living is now shaping not just who can afford to live here, but whether the state can keep critical institutions staffed here at all.