Edward Castelo Named New Warden at Wake Correctional Center

Edward Castelo first walked into Wake Correctional Center on Rock Quarry Rd. in Raleigh as a correctional officer in 2008. The North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections has named him its new warden.

The appointment puts Castelo in charge of a minimum-custody facility unlike most others in the state system. Roughly 320 of Wake Correctional's 400 incarcerated men leave the facility each morning for jobs at state agencies, local governments, and private employers across Wake County, returning by nightfall. The facility is designated for people within two years of completing their sentences, and that daily work-release pipeline is central to its re-entry mission.

Castelo's track record intersects directly with those operational demands. After earning promotions to sergeant and lieutenant at Wake Correctional, he transferred in 2022 to the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where he advanced to captain before accepting a facility compliance specialist role focused on auditing operations against established policy standards. That compliance background positions him to assess where the facility meets its stated mission and where it falls short.

"Warden Castelo has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for leadership and for paying attention to details," Secretary Dismukes said. "Having worked much of his career at Wake Correctional, he knows it well — from its security and operations requirements, to the needs of the people in custody there, who will be re-entering their communities shortly."

Castelo holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Southern New Hampshire University.

The warden position opened after Anthony Perry, who had led Wake Correctional since 2015, was named to head the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh. Perry's career in corrections traces back to 1988 at the now-closed Polk Youth Center; he had served as Wake Correctional's assistant superintendent before being tapped as its warden in 2015. His new post oversees a campus-style facility that dates to the 1930s and houses more than 1,000 women across all custody levels, including death row.

The transition places an administrator who built his career inside Wake Correctional's own walls into its leadership seat at a moment when the facility's re-entry mission carries direct consequences for the broader Raleigh community. Every weekday, the men Castelo oversees leave Rock Quarry Rd. for shifts across Wake County, completing sentences one work assignment at a time.