Guard ran away after getting caught bringing contraband into SC prison, agency says

A prison guard ran away after he was caught bringing contraband into a maximum-security facility in Columbia, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections.

Dalton Damien Manning, 25, of West Columbia, was arrested and charged with attempting to introduce contraband into a prison and misconduct in office, the Department of Corrections said Monday morning.

Manning, an officer at Kirkland Correctional Institution on Broad River Road, tried to bring two packages of tobacco and a cellphone into the maximum-security facility April 14, according to warrants. He then “abandoned his duty station and fled from the institution” when the items were discovered.

It was not clear when Manning was captured.

Kirkland Correctional, located on Broad River Road, is a maximum-security unit that serves as intake for all Department of Corrections inmates and also houses the state’s death row inmates.