DOJ reveals findings on violence at South Carolina jail

Detainees are routinely subjected to the threat of stabbings, sexual assault and gang violence inside the crumbling walls of a South Carolina jail, according to a Justice Department report released Wednesday.

The Justice Department launched an investigation into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in November 2023 based on reports of violence, homicides and unsafe conditions, said Adair Boroughs, U.S. attorney for the district of South Carolina. The probe uncovered a failure by jail staff to protect detainees from assault, partly due to chronic staffing shortages and systemic security issues, according to the report.

“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 that are housed there as well as to staff and to law enforcement.”

Boroughs said local officials have made some headway in addressing structural concerns through renovations but “widespread violence” at the facility continues. The Justice Department warned in its report it may file a lawsuit after 49 days if Richland County doesn’t address the dangerous conditions, which investigators say amount to constitutional violations.

The Justice Department under the Biden administration has investigated conditions at prisons and jails across the country, including in Texas, Georgia, California, Kentucky and Mississippi. Alleged issues at detention facilities include physical violence, sexual abuse and crumbling infrastructure.

DOJ blames chronic staff shortages for jail violence

The Justice Department’s new report said there were at least 60 stabbings in 2023 at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, which is located in South Carolina’s capital city of Columbia. The DOJ noted the rate of such assaults at the center roughly matches the New York City jails, where the city was recently found in contempt in federal court for systemic violence at its facilities.

Investigators blame, in part, a chronic staff shortage going back at least five years that has impeded routine security checks at the Richland County jail and forced staff to monitor several units at once.

Detainees were often found assaulted or dead only after medical staff made their rounds, officers came to deliver meals, or when a victim’s relative called the jail to report an assault, the report said.

In one case, the DOJ said a detainee was beaten and stabbed “multiple times” in three years at the jail, and in every instance, staff was not present. In the first stabbing, the jail took no action until the victim’s mother called two days later, according to the report. In February 2024, the same person suffered his fourth assault, this time by seven detainees.

The jail has also routinely failed to protect detainees from sexual assault, the Justice Department alleges. One person, who was admitted in August 2023, was reportedly assaulted by his cellmate three times in two days in his first month, but staff didn’t listen to him when he tried to get help. The DOJ report said the man “resorted to cutting himself in order to be placed on suicide watch, where he could report the rapes and get away from his attacker.”

The Justice Department did not name victims of the reported assaults in its report.

Chronic staffing shortages have also endangered jail staff. The Justice Department cited a 2023 study by the South Carolina Association of Counties, which found that understaffing at the jail “contributed to an increase in officer injuries and workers’ compensation claims over the past five years.”

USA TODAY has reached out to Richland County for comment on the report.

Contraband, crumbling facility fuel violence

In dozens of interviews with detainees, the Justice Department said many described being assaulted and confirmed unchecked gang violence such as robberies and extortion. Nearly all of the interviewed detainees told investigators they witnessed violence regularly. But the report said it is unclear how pervasive the pattern of violence is since the jail does not keep complete or accurate records of incidents.

The Justice Department said violence, including gang-related incidents, is fueled by unusually high levels of contraband such as shanks, drugs and lighters. In 2023, investigators said 150 weapons were found – almost quadruple the average amount recovered in state prisons in the U.S.

In addition to smuggled weapons, illicit drugs led to eight overdoses over the course of two months in 2024, the Justice Department said, three of which resulted in deaths. The report said detainees were able to get contraband in through holes in the building and that some jail staff also smuggled in items, including cocaine and oxycodone.

The report also criticizes structural issues with the facility, including holes in walls, ceilings and fences, as well as broken light fixtures, furniture and toilets that have been used to craft weapons.

The Justice Department recommends that the jail update its staffing plan, control contraband, revise detainees’ housing placements based on risk of violence, address maintenance issues, and revise how it responds to violent incidents.

Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the jail has a “constitutional duty to protect people in its care from the horrific violations we uncovered here.”

“Incarceration in our nation’s jails should not expose a person to severe and pervasive violence like that in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center,” Clarke said. “Most people in the jail have not been convicted of any crime — they are awaiting hearings or trial dates. They have a right to be free of violence, threats and sexual assault.”