Housing 816 prisoners, Neuse Correctional Institution, received its first inmates on August 27, 1994. Neuse was built to replace Triangle Correctional Center in Raleigh as the eastern North Carolina processing center for adult male misdemeanants. The original 500-bed construction project was authorized in July 1992 with a budget of $10.6 million, and another 100-bed dormitory was added to the construction program in July 1993.
Neuse Correctional Institution serves as the point of entry into the prison system for adult male misdemeanant offenders from all counties. An amended mission is to process felons with sentences less than 24 months. The prison has been designed to provide 512 beds for inmates going through the diagnostic process.