U.S. Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs talks about conditions inside the Richland County detention center Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia. (Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Violence, sexual abuse and contraband are commonplace at the Richland County jail, potentially in violation of the U.S. Constitution, according to a report the Department of Justice released Wednesday.
“Individuals who are charged with a crime and detained at Alvin S. Glenn face very real possibilities of being stabbed, raped and beaten before they ever see a courtroom,” U.S. Attorney Adair Boroughs told reporters.
The 14-month investigation, spurred by reports of violence and deaths, found that the county’s detention center likely violated detainees’ constitutional rights to avoid harm. Jail officials must agree to make changes or risk a lawsuit by the justice department, according to the report.
Another investigation into conditions at the Charleston County jail is still underway, Boroughs said. She declined to provide any details on that case.
Problems at the Richland County jail have been mounting for years. Lawsuits filed on behalf of detainees and their families claimed people have been killed and raped in the jail, with staff doing nothing to help.
“The incidents of violence at Alvin S. Glenn are pervasive, systematic and commonplace,” Boroughs said. “Alvin S. Glenn is marked by a culture of violence that poses a risk to those who are housed there, as well as to staff and law enforcement.”
Unlike prisoners, jail detainees have been charged with a crime but not convicted. The jail in Richland County, home to the state capital, is one of few in the state run by a director appointed by the county administrator instead of the locally elected sheriff. In the ruby red state of South Carolina, Richland County is a Democratic stronghold. Boroughs, a Democrat, has been U.S. attorney since 2022.
Facing threats from the state Department of Corrections to come up with a path forward or risk the state taking control of the jail, Richland County officials renovated housing units, fixed broken doors and locks, and increased pay for detention officers.
The county has put more than $30 million into those fixes, according to a Wednesday statement from the county, which contested the department’s findings. It argued the department relied on outdated information that does not fully account for the changes made.
“Over the coming days, the County and our legal team will work with the Department of Justice to correct the department’s misguided conclusions and to carefully consider all appropriate recommendations as we continue to enhance the functionality of the facility,” read the statement.
Those solutions in place are not enough, Boroughs said.
“We certainly applaud these steps that the county has taken,” Boroughs said. “However, the widespread violence at Alvin S. Glenn continues, and it is a problem that requires additional action.”
Violence
Between January and September 2024, the jail recorded 152 assaults, only three fewer than the same nine months in the year before, the investigation found. That’s despite renovations in certain housing units being completed, Boroughs said.
Those numbers are likely lower than the actual number of assaults. Inconsistent reporting makes it difficult to determine the exact number, and even detention officers don’t know about some attacks, investigators found.
“In many incidents, incarcerated individuals were found assaulted, stabbed, or killed only when medical staff came in to do a medication pass, officers entered the unit to deliver meals, or staff were alerted to an attack by someone outside of the Jail, usually the family of the victim,” the report reads.
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After a mob attacked and killed a detainee in January 2023, officers found out only because a nurse saw a Facebook Live video of other detainees talking about the assault. Someone from outside the jail informed the director through a phone call, the report found.
All jails face some level of violence, and the shortage of officers worsening the problem has been a nationwide issue. But the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center’s problems go far beyond what is typical, investigators found.
Learning about incidents that happened within the jail after the fact, for instance, is not normal, Boroughs said.
“The issues of the Richland County jail extend well beyond industry norms,” she said.
Making the issue worse, staff does little to separate detainees who might injure one another, the report found. At least one detainee reported being raped after officers failed to place him in a protective cell, despite him qualifying for the more secure housing, the report reads.
Staffing
Understaffing is a major contributor to the jail’s problems, the report found. With 90 officers as of November 2024 overseeing more 950 detainees, officers are often in charge of supervising multiple units at a time. That means some units have no oversight, the report found.
The county has set aside enough money for about 160 officers, which is just over half of the 294 positions needed to meet the minimum standards of safety in the jail, the report found.
Recent renovations will require even more staff to make sure every housing unit is supervised, worsening the shortage, the report continued.
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To fill in the gaps, the county contracted out positions to security company Allied Universal. Officers hired through the private company, however, don’t have to meet the same training requirements. Some had previous felony convictions that would usually have disqualified them from working inside the jail, investigators found.
In at least one case, contracted officers left their assigned posts “to roam aimlessly around the facility for various hours of the night,” one officer wrote in the jail’s logbook.
County leaders have known that staffing was a problem for at least six years. Despite raises and other financial incentives to entice more employees, the problem has not improved, the report found.
“While the County claims to be working diligently to address understaffing, it is aware that staffing levels have not increased and unacceptable levels of violence and death continue,” the report reads.
Contraband
Worsening the number of deaths and prevalence of violence, detainees have ready access to weapons, drugs and contraband cellphones.
Over the course of two months last year, at least eight detainees overdosed on drugs, three of them dying. Other detainees have attacked each other with axes and knives fashioned from broken equipment and light fixtures, which are common throughout the jail, the report found.
Staff members do little to prevent the contraband from coming into the jail or punishing the detainees found with it.
The county took some steps to crack down on contraband. Officials installed a new property scanner, security fence and scanner to detect drugs sent through the mail. Yet, officers have failed to actually use the equipment effectively, allowing drugs and weapons to continue coming into the jail, according to the report.
Unaddressed maintenance issues, such as holes in the ceilings of at least nine housing units, allowed detainees to receive and store contraband. Even when staff learned about the holes, they did nothing to fix them or make sure detainees couldn’t access them, the report found.
Grievances
Detainees who are attacked often have no recourse, the investigation found.
People who feel staff are not listening to their complaints can fill out grievance forms.
One detainee used the form to report that fellow inmates were threatening to attack him if he didn’t give them his food. For more than two weeks, the report sat unacknowledged, until an officer wrote, “OK,” and dismissed the complaint.
Another detainee claimed on his forms that officers were denying him food. Because the complaints were written in Spanish, though, an officer wrote back, “I don’t understand what you writing,” and dismissed the complaint.
“The absence of meaningful responses to safety-related grievances is particularly concerning in light of incidents, like those described previously, in which incarcerated people’s verbal pleas for help were ignored by staff,” the report reads.
Even when the Richland County Sheriff’s Department is involved, deputies often struggle to investigate incidents because staff members and detainees clean up evidence before they arrive, the report found.
That means deputies can do little to prosecute alleged criminals, Boroughs said.
Investigators received hundreds of phone calls and emails from family members of detainees, Boroughs said.
“All of them had disturbing stories of violence,” Boroughs said. “Their plea was the same: We are afraid for the lives of our loved ones. Something has to be done.”