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Polk Correctional Institution (Butner NC)
Polk Correctional Institution is located in Butner North Carolina. It is a close custody correctional institution which is the highest security level a prison in North Carolina can have. The current capacity of Polk Correctional Institution is 904 adult males. This facility operates a maximum control unit which houses the most violent and dangerous inmates.

Offenders at Polk Correctional Institution can work in various job assignments including kitchen duty and custodial maintenance. Inmates can also receive substance abuse treatment, and participate in various programs aimed at changing behavioral patterns.

Polk Correctional Institution houses inmates in both single cells and dormitories. When Polk opened in 1997, its main mission was to process newly-admitted youthful offenders between the ages of 19 and 21. The prison also houses inmates that participate in job assignments and other programs. It is a close-custody prison, but it is also approved to house inmates assigned to maximum control, intensive control, disciplinary segregation and safekeeping status.

Polk's high-security maximum control unit (HCON) opened in October 1998. This high-security concept in correctional design is intended for the state's most violent and assaultive offenders. The "Supermax" (HCON) unit in Butner was the first of its kind in North Carolina.

Due to the demand of prison space, in 2003, Polk's age criteria for inmates changed from 18-21 to 19-25. In October 2005, the facility changed its name from Polk Youth Institution to Polk Correctional Institution to reflect this older population, including the HCON unit.

HISTORY

Polk Correctional Institution officially opened November 15, 1997 when inmates were transferred to the new facility. The new prison in Butner replaced an old unit on Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh. The original Polk facility acquired its name in 1920 from Col. William Polk, a decorated officer in the Revolutionary War. It was built on the grounds of Camp Polk, a U.S. Army tank base during World War I. Initially, inmates farmed the site.