Hours after Richland County jail inmates receive GEDs, another inmate is stabbed

Just hours after seven inmates wearing gold graduation gowns received their GEDs inside the Richland County jail, another inmate was rushed to the hospital following a fight.

Another inmate had been hospitalized the night before with stab wound to his thigh and hands, and wounds across his face. They were the seventh and eighth assaults inside the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center reported by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department so far this year.

Richland County continues to invest millions of dollars into improving the detention center to try to meet state standards after a critical report by the South Carolina Department of Corrections. But the facility continues to be beset by violence that has proven stubbornly hard to eradicate.

Sheriff’s department deputies were called to investigate the most recent attack at 2:45 p.m. Friday, just hours after the gradation ceremony for inmates who had completed a 12-week course meant to inspire hope and test them in math, reading, science and social studies.

Jail staff reported that two inmates had gotten into a fight during recreation time. During the fight, a 25-year-old male inmate received cuts to his upper body. Three homemade knives were recovered following the attack, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

Including the most recent incidents, deputies have reported five hospitalizations for stabbings inside the jail so far this month, an unusually high number even for a jail that has been previously criticized for its lax security.

On May 11, three inmates were stabbed in two separate incidents. Just six days later, Cameron T. Darley, a 27-year-old jail employee was arrested and charged with bringing contraband into the jail and misconduct in office.

The violence has been widely blamed by attorneys and county officials on chronic under-staffing that continues to plague the jail, which also houses federal inmates and inmates from other counties who are awaiting trial. In a presentation to Richland County Council, interim jail director Crayman Harvey said roughly half of the detention center officer positions were not filled.

In a Jan. 19 letter to the county, Blake Taylor, director of compliance, standards and inspections with the Department of Corrections, wrote that the state could mandate specific changes if Richland County did not provide a plan to improve the jail.

Since then, the county administration has made significant public pledges to improve the staffing and security situation at the jail. Bonuses for retention and referral are being offered to new employees, and pay is being structured to encourage employees to stay longer. Richland County has also pledged $2.5 million to retrofit the jail’s locks with a high security Willo Wedge Lock system.

“All of these things are focused efforts that we are taking to address the concerns at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center,” county administrator Leonardo Brown said at a press conference in April, shortly after the county administration submitted a 180-page plan to the Department of Corrections outlining proposed improvements to the jail.

Introduced in 2017, the GED program is one such initiative that administrators and county officials hope will help reduce violence and improve the lives of inmates. So far, there have been 64 graduates, according to a statement from the Richland County Council, but this is the first commencement ceremony.

“You’re putting 12 years into three tests for them to achieve their GED. So it’s a lot of work,” Harvey, the jail director, said Friday. “It’s 12 weeks of work, and in this type of environment that they are in, it has to be very disciplined on their part to be able to achieve what they achieved today.”

Harvey has previously said that a growing number of inmates were staying incarcerated at the jail for longer periods of time.

“While they’re here, this is the prime time to give them all the programs and resources they need,” he said. “So when they do get out, or if they should get out, they won’t have to come back to jail.”