South Carolina Prison Industry Program Problematic, Audit Finds by Michael Rigby South Carolina Prison Industry Program Problematic, Audit Finds by Michael Rigby The prison industries program of the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) is improperly managed, likely displaces workers in the surrounding community, and creates an unfair advantage in …
Supreme Court Upholds Federal Tolling Statute; $80,000 Verdict Reinstated by Reversing the Supreme Court of South Carolina, the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, held that 28 U.S.C. § 1367(d) is constitutional. The decision reinstates a judgment against a South Carolina county jail in a wrongful death claim. …
South Carolina Cuts ACA Accreditation at Four State Prisons by Lonnie Burton In a move that would purportedly save the state about $250,000 annually, a South Carolina Corrections Department official on April 13, 2003 announced they would cancel accreditation contracts at four state prisons, including one maximum-security institution. Corrections Department …
South Carolina Found in Contempt for Non-Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners by South Carolina Found in Contempt for Non-Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners by Lonnie Burton The South Carolina Department of Mental Health (DMH) and its director were held in contempt of court on September 5, 2002, for ignoring repeated …
U.S. Supreme Court: Guantanamo Detainees and "Enemy Combatants" Have Access to Habeas Corpus by John E Dannenberg U.S. Supreme Court: Guantanamo Detainees and "Enemy Combatants" Have Access To Habeas Corpus by John E. Dannenberg In three interrelated decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "enemy combatant" detainees held at Guantanamo …
Report Blasts South Carolina Plan to Privatize Prison Health Care by Michael Rigby South Carolina's disastrous 15-year experiment with prison health care privatization should be a warning to those hardheaded state leaders who plan to do it again, according to a report sponsored by Grassroots Leadership and South Carolina Fair …
South Carolina County Pays $276,660 for Illegal Wiretaps on Judges' Telephones by The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a federal district court's $276,660 damage award to South Carolina state court judges who alleged that Greenville County law enforcement officers ran unlawful wiretaps on their telephones …
Prison Phone Rate Case Remanded to South Carolina State Court by The United States District Court of South Carolina has remanded to state court a suit by prisoners' family members against Sprint Payphone Services and other communications providers, the State of South Carolina, and the South Carolina Department of Corrections …
South Carolina Guards Plead Guilty in Sex Cases by In the April 2001 issue of PLN we reported at length on a series of investigations into allegations of drug smuggling by staff, as well as sexual activity between prisoners and staff, in South Carolina prisons. The investigation was started by …
Corrections Corporation of America Hit with $3 Million Abuse Verdict by Lonnie Burton On Dec 14, 2000, a federal jury in South Carolina awarded a 14-year-old boy more than $3 million in damages after finding Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) guilty of physically abusing the Charleston, SC teen-ager. In …
South Carolina Rapes Exposed by Bill Dunne South Carolina is reaping a crop of corruption and scandal from the desolate fields of its prison system. Predatory guards wield power with few checks on their using it to seek gratification through exploitation and oppression. Prisoners, especially women, are stripped of the …
South Carolina Prison Chief Fired as Scandal Widens by Dan Pens Governor Jim Hodges angrily fired South Carolina's prisons chief January 11, 2001 after two guards were charged with allowing four minimumsecurity prisoners (2 male, 2 female) to have sex inside the governor's mansion. The charges deepened a prison scandal …
"The Judge Gave Me Ten Years--He Didn't Sentence Me to Death" by Anne-Marie Cusac "The Judge Gave Me Ten Years--He Didn't Sentence Me to Death" Prisoners with HIV deprived of proper care By Anne-Marie Cusac In prisons and jails across the country, prisoners with HIV or AIDS are denied proper …
SC Jail Escape Kills One by Eight prisoners sought to escape from the Richland county jail in South Carolina on the night of September 17, 2000. The jail houses mostly pretrial detainees from Columbia, South Carolina and Richland County. The escape attempt resulted in a guard's death but no one …
SC Prisoners Settle Rape Suits by On October 16, 1999, an unidentified former woman prisoner settled a lawsuit for $115,000. The woman claimed that in 1995 while she was imprisoned at the Women's Correctional Center in Broad River, South Carolina, prison guard Anthony Green raped her and South Carolina prison …
South Carolina Prisoner Wins Excessive Use of Force Suit Pro Se by South Carolina Prisoner Wins Excessive Use Of Force Suit Pro Se By Matthew T. Clarke In an unpublished opinion, the Fourth Circuit court of appeals has held that a South Carolina federal district court improperly failed to consider …
Long Term Segregation of Security Threat Group Okay by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the long-term segregation of a purported religious sect as a Security Threat Group (STG) violates neither the Free Exercise nor the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. It further …
$100,000 Settlement in South Carolina Jail Death by On May 12, 1999, Spartanburg county in South Carolina announced it would pay $100,000 to settle a wrongful death suit filed by the estate of a prisoner. On June 7, 1998, John Pruitt, a detainee in the Spartanburg county jail, collapsed and …
They Killed a Man, Not a Number by David Hill [Editor's Note: South Carolina killed Andy Smith on December 18, 1998. He was the 500th person executed in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Like a thousand other editors, I wanted to cover it. I asked …
South Carolina Parole Elimination Violates Ex Post Facto by The South Carolina supreme court held that the retroactive statutory elimination of parole eligibility for violent offenders violates the ex post facto clause provisions of the United States and South Carolina constitutions. Ronnie Phillips, a South Carolina state prisoner, pled guilty …