A South Carolina jail where at least 60 people were stabbed in 2023 and others died in recent years routinely failed to protect its inmates and violated their constitutional rights, the Justice Department said in a report released on Wednesday.
The Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County, S.C., “fails to provide reasonable safety and to protect incarcerated people,” the department said in a news release. Staffing shortages and security failures, among other issues, led to high levels of gang violence, sexual assaults and armed attacks on inmates, according to the report, which followed a federal investigation that lasted more than a year.
“Incarceration in our nation’s jails should not expose a person to severe and pervasive violence like that in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Most of the nearly 1,000 people in the jail have not been convicted of a crime, but rather are being held there while awaiting trial, she said.
Federal prosecutors may bring a lawsuit against the jail if Richland County officials do not address the list of concerns listed in the department’s findings, according to the report.
Leonardo Brown, the Richland County administrator, said in a statement on Wednesday that the county, which runs the jail, disagreed with the Justice Department’s conclusions. He said that the jail had made “significant changes” to its facilities, including by spending $30 million in renovations. Since those renovations began, Mr. Brown said, weapon assaults have decreased by 82 percent.
But investigators reported that violence had not significantly decreased in recent years, and that the jail “demonstrably underreports violent incidents.”
The 36-page report on the jail revealed a deteriorating environment in which inmates were in constant danger and were neglected by staff. The South Carolina jail had “almost four times as many stabbings in 2023 as the Miami-Dade County Jail, with less than a quarter of the population.”
Makeshift knives and, in one case, an ax were used to attack inmates. Groups of people regularly targeted, threatened and beat individuals, investigators said.
One person died in January 2023 after he was assaulted and stabbed by five other inmates, according to the report. Officers were not aware of the death until a person from outside the jail called to tell the director that someone had been killed and “was lying in a pool of blood.”
The Justice Department officials accused the jail of ignoring inmates’ concerns for their safety and requests for help. “Numerous” individuals who opened official grievances to tell staff members that they were in danger or were being mistreated never received a resolution, according to the report.
Some jail employees also brought in contraband for inmates within the jail, according to the findings. Several corrections officers were caught or admitted to smuggling in cellphones, drugs and other items; one officer tried to bring crack cocaine and 99 oxycodone pills into the facility in February 2024.
At least eight drug overdoses were recorded at the jail in July and August last year, three of which were fatal.
Besides violent and illicit activity, the federal authorities detailed poor living conditions in the jail, including missing ceiling tiles, cracked toilets and broken locks.
Mr. Brown, the Richland County administrator, said that renovations to the facility were continuing. “We fully recognize that the changes made were necessary and critical for the safety of both our staff and residents,” he said in his statement. “Our significant financial investment reinforces that the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center is a top priority for Richland County and its leadership.”
The Justice Department opened its “pattern or practice” investigation into the jail, as well as into another South Carolina jail, the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center near Charleston, in November 2023. No findings have been released on the other South Carolina jail at this time. These types of investigations are used to scrutinize law enforcement agencies and potential constitutional violations.
Federal inquiries into misconduct in detention centers across the country have increased in recent years under Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. There are several open cases and lawsuits in other states against detention centers.
The post U.S. Finds Pervasive Safety Failures at South Carolina Jail appeared first on New York Times.
