2 SC jails target of DOJ investigations. But issues rampant in jails across state. (2024)

The U.S. Department of Justice's far-reaching investigations into civil rights violations at two troubled South Carolina jails could hone in on systemic issues — including the treatment of mentally ill inmates, deplorable living conditions and lack of security — that are plaguing dozens of county jails across the state.

The department on Nov. 2 opened two separate investigations into potential civil rights violations inside Charleston County's Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center and the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center near Columbia. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the civil rights division, said the decision to move forward followed "credible allegations" inside the jails of pervasive violence, inmate deaths due to suicide and gross medical neglect and filthy living conditions.

The federal probes, which could take more than a year, will offer their own findings and conclusions. But the death and suffering of people detained in South Carolina's county jails have widely been attributed to the incarceration of mentally ill people, a shortage of detention deputies and jails' usage of private, for-profit medical companies to care for inmates at a reduced cost to counties.

State Rep. Marvin Pendarvis said he believes the investigations announced Nov. 2 might be just the beginning of the federal government's attention to the conditions of South Carolina's jails.

"There’s a culture in South Carolina when it comes to how we house and how we treat pretrial detainees," the North Charleston Democrat said. "I wouldn’t be surprised if the investigation in these two (jails) leads to a further investigation or forces the DOJ to widen their scope."

The jails in Charleston and Richland counties have been in the spotlight for deaths of mentally ill inmates, brutal violence and reports of filthy living conditions. But they are far from the only troubled jails in the state. Every county lockup in South Carolina racked up violations in 2022 inspections initiated by the S.C. Department of Corrections.

In 2022, at least 39 people died in South Carolina county jails, according to data provided by the S.C. Department of Public Safety. That is the highest number of deaths reported in the state’s county jails since at least 2000, when the U.S. Department of Justice began collecting nationwide data on mortality in correctional institutions.

Detention centers in Charleston, Greenville and Spartanburg counties each recorded the most deaths — six.

Lavell Lanewas ignored in a jail cell at the Spartanburg County Detention Center in October 2022 for hours before he was found dead the next morning, according to coroner records and the State Law Enforcement Division. The 29-year-old, who suffered from schizophrenia, was booked into the jail the previous night. Deputies placed Lane in a padded cell and used a stun gun on him. Staff did not recognize his symptoms of neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS), a side effect of an anti-psychotic medicine a jail nurse previously gave him, according to a lawsuit.

The detention center in Spartanburg has been overcrowded for decades, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections.

Allen Chaney, the legal director of South Carolina's ACLU, said the civil rights violations under investigation by the DOJ "flow directly from overcrowding and understaffing."

"Yet counties continue to use their jails as a catchall solution for drug addiction, poverty, and — as we're seeing now in Columbia — for homelessness," he said. "Hopefully the weight of a federal civil rights investigation will make lawmakers evaluate whether their resources might be better invested in programs that reduce drug addiction and homelessness rather than resorting to the harmful, ineffective, and inhumane system of arrest-and-release.”

Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano, who oversees the county jail, defended her staff in a Nov. 2 statement. She called on "the elected officials of South Carolina to do their job and do their part to stop the dumping of the mentally ill in jails."

Clarke, the assistant U.S. attorney general, cited the deaths of two mentally ill men in the custody of the Charleston County jail in her announcement of the DOJ investigation. She said the probe into the Charleston County jail will investigate access to medical and mental health care and whether the jail discriminates against inmates with mental illness.

Charleston County contracted with Wellpath, the largest private correctional health care company in the country, to provide care to inmates. The medical provider has a stated goal to reduce costs and at times did not have a full-time psychiatrist on its payroll. Charleston County and Wellpath parted ways this summer after both parties said they declined to renew their contract.

The Sheriff's Office blamed Wellpath after D'Angelo Dontrel Brown, who suffered from schizophrenia, was found unconscious in an isolation cell soiled with his own feces and later died. But Wellpath shot back that its health care providers were fearful to enter the jail's living units because the Sheriff's Office failed to provide adequate staffing levels. In February, 40 percent of detention deputy positions sat vacant, though the numbers have since improved.

Access to medical care has been the focus of lawsuits filed against jails throughout the state.

Last month, a jury awarded a woman detained in the Aiken County Detention Centernearly $1 million in damages, finding that the Aiken County Sheriff's Office was "grossly negligent" in providing her access to medical care.

The jail contracts with Southern Health Partners, a Tennessee-based private company, to provide medical services to people in the jail. But medical staff failed to treat Cassiopia Rhoads in 2019 for a head injury that grew to the size of a softball, according the woman's attorney. After passing out inside the jail, she was taken to a hospital where she required surgery that removed part of her skull.

The so-called pattern or practice investigations of the Charleston and Richland jails will determine if the jails routinely violated inmates' constitutional rights, including their right to medical care and safe living conditions. If the DOJ finds evidence of systematic civil rights violations, it can encourage local officials to agree to a series of reforms. Alternatively, it can take legal action.

South Carolina U.S. Attorney Adair Boroughs told reporters Nov. 2 the federal probes support her office's “mission to keep the people of South Carolina safe.” But that mission is confronting obstacles stemming from conditions in county jails.

“We recognize that today’s law enforcement and corrections landscape faces many challenges. Our detention centers are decentralized and run by individual counties or sheriffs," she said. "It can make things difficult as far as ensuring direct oversight, ensuring adequate staffing and making necessary change.”