Drew Stanley \u201990 had no idea one \u201chelp wanted\u201d ad would lead to spending most of his life in prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All he knew was that he needed a job. So he answered an ad from a youth corrections center\u2009\u2014\u2009and launched a 35-year career with the N.C. Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had no idea what I was getting into,\u201d Stanley recalls of his start as a corrections officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he studied experienced officers and figured out their formula for success: Be consistent. Communicate clearly. And never forget that offenders serving time are human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The approach has served him in many roles\u2009\u2014\u2009from corrections officer to assistant head of programs and, since 2019, as warden at Nash Correctional Center, a medium-security prison in Nashville, N.C. It\u2019s a complex operation where inmates crank out most of the printing for state agencies and more than 800 pairs of glasses a day for offenders, staff and Medicaid patients. Stanley supervises 650 inmates and a staff of 250.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis job can be boring, but it doesn\u2019t take but just a second to go from boring to very dangerous,\u201d says Stanley, who focuses not on the risk but the mission. \u201cWe\u2019re responsible for trying to develop a better person than the one we received.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re responsible for trying to develop a better person than the one we received.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s proud of 24 inmates who recently graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and now preach and counsel in four prisons. \u201cA couple of guys might be getting ready to fight,\u201d Stanley says, \u201cand these guys will intervene and talk them down, so they prevent things from\u2009. . .\u2009turning into something larger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stanley is all about prevention. To fight COVID-19, he stepped up cleaning, beefed up ventilation and adjusted housing assignments\u2009\u2014\u2009moves that held off the prison\u2019s first outbreak for almost 10 months after the virus hit other North Carolina prisons. For that effort, Stanley was named the state\u2019s warden of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had no idea I would end up where I\u2019m at today,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019m a correctional officer at heart.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n
By Carole Tanzer Miller<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Drew Stanley \u201990 had no idea one \u201chelp wanted\u201d ad would lead to spending most of his life in prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All he knew was that he needed a job. So he answered an ad from a youth corrections center\u2009\u2014\u2009and launched a 35-year career with the N.C. Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had no idea what I was getting into,\u201d Stanley recalls of his start as a corrections officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he studied experienced officers and figured out their formula for success: Be consistent. Communicate clearly. And never forget that offenders serving time are human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The approach has served him in many roles\u2009\u2014\u2009from corrections officer to assistant head of programs and, since 2019, as warden at Nash Correctional Center, a medium-security prison in Nashville, N.C. It\u2019s a complex operation where inmates crank out most of the printing for state agencies and more than 800 pairs of glasses a day for offenders, staff and Medicaid patients. Stanley supervises 650 inmates and a staff of 250.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis job can be boring, but it doesn\u2019t take but just a second to go from boring to very dangerous,\u201d says Stanley, who focuses not on the risk but the mission. \u201cWe\u2019re responsible for trying to develop a better person than the one we received.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re responsible for trying to develop a better person than the one we received.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s proud of 24 inmates who recently graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and now preach and counsel in four prisons. \u201cA couple of guys might be getting ready to fight,\u201d Stanley says, \u201cand these guys will intervene and talk them down, so they prevent things from\u2009. . .\u2009turning into something larger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stanley is all about prevention. To fight COVID-19, he stepped up cleaning, beefed up ventilation and adjusted housing assignments\u2009\u2014\u2009moves that held off the prison\u2019s first outbreak for almost 10 months after the virus hit other North Carolina prisons. For that effort, Stanley was named the state\u2019s warden of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had no idea I would end up where I\u2019m at today,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019m a correctional officer at heart.\u201d <\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the warden of a prison, Drew Stanley \u201990 tries to stay ahead of problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"As the warden of a prison, Drew Stanley \u201990 tries to stay ahead of problems.\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"caption\":\"\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[201,373,827,846],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-act","category-stories","tag-carole-tanzer-miller","tag-drew-stanley","tag-n-c-department-of-public-safety","tag-nash-correctional-center"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":52,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5031,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions\/5031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1791"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=1791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}