North Carolina Reimburses Prisoner $2,500 for Law Books Destroyed by Guards
by Anthony W. Accurso
A prisoner, who said that he was inspired by what he read in PLN, fought for over three years to obtain compensation from North Carolina for property lost when prison officials failed to secure it while he was transferred for extradition to another state.
Robert E. Woodward was in the custody of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) when the state of Arkansas sought to extradite him in 2018. He was called to Receiving and told he would “not [be] permitted to return to his cell, collect any belongings, or secure his property himself.” He was then moved without an extradition hearing to Arkansas, where he spent time in an Arkansas supermax prison until he was returned to North Carolina.
Upon his return, Woodward learned that his property had not been stored at Receiving, as DPS policy indicated it should have been. He was told by another prisoner that all his property had been sold by the prisoner who had moved into his old cell. When he left, Woodward had irreplaceable photos of his wife—who had passed away—along with nearly 60 law books, legal documents and other property. When he returned from Arkansas, “nothing of any monetary value was left in [his] room.”
He learned that no DC-160 inventory form was completed when he was transferred. There were two DC-160 forms that were completed before he left, noting the aforementioned property, and another form was completed after he left, which mentioned only some food items and a contraband radio that was seized.
Woodward began the administrative remedy process in March 2019 before he ultimately filed a tort claim for his missing property. The prison responded that the only property for which it accepted responsibility was the contraband radio.
When his case reached the state Industrial Commission, which hears tort claims against DPS officials, the hearing board found that Defendant prison officials had “a duty to exercise reasonable care in the storage, handling, and return of an inmate’s property that Defendant takes into its possession.” Moreover, it said that DPS officers breached that duty. The Commission entered a judgement for damages totaling $2,500 for Woodward’s losses.
Woodward told PLN that it took “37 months and 2 weeks,” and along the way he had to beat back “many motions to dismiss,” but he finally got compensated for the losses caused by DPS guards who failed to secure his property when he was transferred for extradition. See: Woodward v. NCDPS, I.C. No. TA-27840 (2022).
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