Lee Correctional facility does not have angels for guards either. Recently, there were 14 arrests made for taking bribes and smuggling contraband.
April 25, 2018
Hoping to stanch "a crisis in contraband," (click here) federal prosecutors have indicted 14 former state corrections employees accused of taking bribes for smuggling cellphones and drugs into South Carolina's prisons....
There is nothing like guards that don't know how to guard or even know and respect the law. How convenient is it for guards to allow people to die if they can become a prisoner whistleblower?
September 14, 2012
By Jeffery Collins
Columbia — Another hostage situation (click here) in just over three months at the same state maximum security prison have South Carolina senators wondering if they need to have Corrections Department officials answer questions about the facility.
Inmates held an officer for about five hours Thursday at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville. He was released with minor injuries. In the past four years, four large fights and three hostage situations have broken out at the prison.
"If it was a system-wide problem, you would be hearing about these situations at other places, right?" said Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, and a member of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee....
Seven men were allowed to die, rather than guards ending the violence. The violence spread to three cell blocks before it stopped. Afterward, the warden stated there was not one of his men hurt.
Well. The warden was wrong. All these men were under his supervision and care. Seven died and many wounded. The dead were piled on top of each other.
No tear gas, no nothing. The authorities in the prison simply stood by and let it happen. The riot started at 7:30 pm, the prison authorities didn't enter the prison until cell blocks until 11:30 pm where control is stated to easily return. Additional response occurred at 12:30 pm in another section and control was easily returned. The final two cell blocks came under control at 1:00 AM and prison counting began.
There was no excuse for this. If tear gas was sent into those cell blocks when the violence first started, it wouldn't have spread to other areas of the prison and seven men would still be alive.
This was one of South Carolina's maximum security prisons, that does mean everyone was on death row. Premature deaths in prisoners need investigation and prosecution.
From top row from left, Corey Scott, Eddie Casey Gaskins, Raymond Angelo Scott and Damonte Rivera; bottom row from left, Michael Milledge, Cornelius McClary and Joshua Jenkins. The seven inmates were killed, and at least 17 prisoners wounded, in a riot.A timeline:
April 25, 2018
November 2017 (click here)
About 300 inmates are transferred to Lee Correctional Institution from McCormick Correctional Institution. Both facilities are maximum-security prisons. The transfer from McCormick occurs because that facility is understaffed. A dorm at Lee is cleared out for 250 of the inmates from McCormick. Another 50 to 60 inmates from McCormick are put in "restrictive housing" at Lee, meaning that they live in lockdown for most of each day....
...4:40 a.m.
According to Lee County Emergency Medical Services Director Tim Dubose, 12 ambulances and a bus are used to transport injured inmates to a total of five hospitals in Florence, Hartsville, Sumter and Richland County. The last of 22 inmates are transported from the prison infirmary to hospitals at 4:40 a.m....
