News Roundup

Published for NC Criminal Law on September 27, 2019.

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety announced this week that it will temporarily suspend operations at three prisons to alleviate high staff vacancy rates and enhance safety and security in the state prison system.  The announcement says that the statewide average correctional officer vacancy rate in August was 21% and that “[t]his level of staffing impacts operations . . . [and] negatively impact[s] the delivery of offender programs.”  Operations will be suspended at Hoke Correctional Institution, Tyrrell Prison Work Farm, and Odom Correctional Institution.  Employees at those prisons will be redeployed to nearby facilities.  The News Roundup previously has noted that understaffing has been a problem at certain North Carolina prisons in recent years and may have been a factor in a deadly escape attempt at Pasquotank Correctional Institution in 2017.  Keep reading for more news. Rape Detective Fired.  The Fayetteville Observer reports that a detective who was the investigator on several rape cases has been fired after being accused of making inappropriate advances towards victims in the cases that he worked.  Paul G. Matrafailo III was dismissed by the Fayetteville Police Department in May.  According to the Observer, Matrafailo allegedly sent sexually suggestive messages over social media to at least two women whose rape cases he was investigating. Survivor Act Signed.  Late last week Governor Roy Cooper signed legislation known as the “Survivor Act” into law.  As WFMY reports, the law requires mandatory submission of all future sexual assault evidence kits to a lab for testing and addresses the [...]