Sometimes while people are incarcerated in NC county jails or NC state prisons they are injured by staff or even die due to lack of timely medical care or other failures of the facility staff. DRNC wants to be notified of these issues. Notifying us of these incidents can help us focus our outreach, policy, and facility monitoring work; however, due to limited resources, we are not currently able to represent people in individual civil litigation lawsuits against facilities or staff.
Depending on the circumstances of the incident, you may do any or all of the following:
- People incarcerated in the facility may file a grievance.
- Friends or families may file a complaint with the sheriff (jail) or Warden (prison).
- If the incident occurred in a jail or while in custody of the jail, people may file a complaint with C. Division of Health Service Regulation (DHSR) (DHSR does not investigate complaints about prisons)
DHSR is a state agency that licenses facilities that provide healthcare services in North Carolina. One of DHSR’s sections, the Construction Section, is responsible for investigating complaints about local jails. You do not need an attorney to file a complaint with DHSR’s Construction Section, anyone can file a complaint. DHSR only investigates complaints filed within one year of the event. DHSR’s Construction Section prefers to receive complaints in writing whenever possible.
To file a complaint, write to DHSR’s Chief Jail Inspector, Chris Wood at DHSR Construction Section Attn Chris Wood, Chief Jail Inspector 2705 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-2705. You may also email your written complaint to chris.wood@dhhs.nc.gov .
If you are unable to submit a written complaint or do not want to put your complaint in writing, you may call 919-855-3893 and Construction Section staff will take the complaint over the phone.
Please note that the complaint hotline on the DHSR website is for other healthcare facilities that are licensed under DHSR (jails are not) so the DHSR complaint hotline will not be able to take your complaint.
- For incidents that happen in either jail or prison you may reach out to other advocacy groups:
a. North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services
NC Prisoner Legal Services (PLS) (Accepts letters from people in both prisons and jails. PLS will also accept some civil assistance requests against facilities. They also work to correct unlawful criminal sentences (not trial level or appellate level criminal cases – post-conviction cases only). PLS advocates for safe, humane, and constitutional prison conditions. Examples of cases: people who need individual civil representation against facilities/staff, those who want someone to review their completed criminal case, issues with getting credit for good time and other sentence reduction credits.)
North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc.
PO Box 25397
Raleigh, NC 27611
Phone: 919.856.2200
E-Mail: ncpls@ncpls.org
b. American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina
ACLU NC (focuses on racial justice, criminal law and justice system reform (including racially biased policing),
ACLU of North Carolina
PO Box 28004
Raleigh, NC 27611
Phone: 919-834-3466
Fax: 919-869-2075
Email: contact@acluofnc.org
c. Department of Justice
US DOJ (Handle complaints about ADA violations in jails and prisons. They can also hear complaints about law enforcement misconduct, hate crimes, human trafficking)
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
- If you are unable to find an attorney, you may also contact the NC Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service. If you are seeking a referral to a North Carolina attorney, please contact the LRS call center at 919.677.8574 or you may apply online at Find an NC Lawyer.
Please be aware that there is a $50 fee for a 30-minute consultation with an attorney when you use this service.
- If none of the other options are successful, you may want to file a complaint with your County Commissioners-you can find their information on your county’s website (for county jail issues) or legislator that represents your area. Find your legislators. (state prison or county jail issues).
Federal Facilities
- DRNC is unable to assist those in custody in federal facilities. However, there are some resources that you may try. You may contact the Federal Public Defender assigned to your case. The Federal Bureau of Prisons from the USA.Gov website also offers the following steps that you can take:
- File a formal complaint directly with the facility.
- If your complaint is not resolved, you can file a complaint with the regional Bureau of Prisons regional office:
- Mid-Atlantic Regional Office (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia
- North Central Regional Office (Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin)
- Northeast Regional Office (Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont
- Southeast Regional Office (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, Mississippi, South Carolina)
- South Central Regional Office (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas)
- Western Regional Office (Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming)
- If you cannot get your complaint addressed at the above levels, you may contact BOP Headquarters or the Department of Justice -Office of the Inspector General (oversees the BOP)