Bob Lewis, the new state prisons director, will be making $111,570 a year, according to a Department of Correction spokesman.

The DOC announced Lewis' appointment on Tuesday. He had been the deputy director for prison support services for the past eight years, Dan Kane reports.

He replaces Boyd Bennett, who is retiring at the end of the month.

Robert "Bob" Lewis has been named the state's new prisons director, the Correction Department announced this morning.

Lewis, 58, has been deputy director for prison support services for the past eight years.

As prisons director, Lewis will be in charge of 79 prisons that confine 40,000 inmates. The division has more than 17,000 employees, and an annual budget of $1.1 billion.

Correction Secretary Al Keller appointed Lewis to the post effective March 1, when he will succeed the retiring Boyd Bennett.

Lewis started his career as a correctional officer in 1973 at Triangle Correctional Center in Raleigh and rose through the ranks in custody, programs, security and management. He lives in Raleigh and is a graduate of St. Augustine's College.

Boyd Bennett, the state's prisons director, is retiring at the end of the month after more than 36 years working in the Correction Department.

Bennett, 59, has been the director of a system that has 79 prisons and roughly 40,000 inmates for eight years, Dan Kane reports.

He started out in the department as a probation officer, switched over to the prison division six years later, and rose through the administrative ranks to the top spot. A successor has not been named.

"It's just a good time for me financially," Bennett said of his retirement plans. "When you get as much time in as I've had with the state it doesn't pay as much to be working as it does to be in retirement."

More after the jump.

   Comments (2)

State lawmakers showed little interest today in avoiding another big prison construction bill this session.

In fact, they laughed when Rep. Ronnie Sutton, a Pembroke Democrat, asked whether they would look at legislation that spends more on prevention and less on incarceration, reports Dan Kane.

"Is there anyone that thinks we're going to change our mode of operation?" Sutton asked, after lawmakers listened to a report of options to deal with a rapidly growing prison population.

Today, the state prison system is again out of space. Prisons Director Boyd Bennett said he has sent notice to county jails that they will have to hold convicted and sentenced inmates until a new 1,500 bed prison opens up in Columbus County at the end of summer.

The prison, though, is only a temporary fix. Projections show that the system could be 1,800 inmates over capacity by 2012.

Read more after the jump.

   Comments (1)