Inmate ordered violent crimes from behind bars at South Carolina prison, officials say

An inmate at a South Carolina prison is facing new charges for orchestrating violent crimes from behind bars, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Harvester Jackson, 27, targeted multiple people — and in one instance ordered a woman’s house to be shot and her car to be burned — while locked up in a state Department of Corrections institution, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference.

Jackson, who was convicted of armed robbery and second-degree burglary in 2013, faces new charges of accessory to attempted murder, accessory to discharging a firearm into a dwelling, and accessory to arson, according to Lott.

Both Lott and Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling accused Jackson of using a cellphone to order these crimes. Since May, Jackson has been locked up at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia, according to the Department of Corrections. It is an all-male, high-security institution that primarily houses “violent offenders with longer sentences, and inmates who exhibit behavioral problems.”

“This is no different than a weapon in the hands of an inmate,” Stirling said of the ongoing issue of inmates using cellphones. “It’s like Groundhog Day, it keeps happening over and over.”

Jackson has been under investigation since April, and his July 21 arrest is the first of several expected in connection to the crimes, according to the sheriff.

The crimes could be avoided if cellphone frequencies were jammed at South Carolina prisons, both Lott and Stirling said.

“Jamming completely shuts the door,” Stirling said. These inmates “are taken out of society, but they are still causing harm to society. ... I don’t understand the holdup. We need Congress to act.”

Echoing that sentiment, Lott said “these crimes can be stopped if the FCC does what it’s supposed to do and jam cellphones. These people are in prison because they committed a crime, but they get a cellphone and get on Facebook and call people, and you get a house shot up and get a car burned.”

South Carolina’s prisons are barred by federal law from jamming contraband cellphones used by inmates inside prison walls.

Stirling has argued for the ability to jam cellphone signals in state prisons, which would make the contraband cellphones useless. But he has faced opposition from the cellphone industry, which said the jamming devices could interfere with cellphones outside of the prisons.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a field test at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia that showed how the signals can be blocked and not interfere with the surrounding community, Stirling said.

The sheriff’s department said this technology would block any cell signal from leaving institutions, rendering the illegal cellphones useless.

Since 2015, the Department of Corrections said it has confiscated more than 25,000 cell phones and accessories from inside its prisons.

Inmates have been prosecuted for using cell phones to order murders, incite violence, orchestrate escapes, extort money from innocent victims and run criminal enterprises from inside prison walls, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

“We’ve proven that the technology works. We need the ability to stop these cell phones from working and keep these criminals from committing crimes while they are behind bars,” Stirling said. “Contraband cell phones have proven to be the most dangerous weapon in prisons today.”

Jackson was projected to be released from prison in March 2021, but Lott said that’s not likely now that new charges have been filed.

Since he was locked up in 2013, Jackson has been disciplined 28 times, including an incident three days into his prison sentence, Department of Corrections records show. The offenses include multiple times where he was accused of threatening to harm prison employees, possessing contraband or drugs, and possessing or attempting to posses a cell phone on eight occasions.

Jackson was also punished for creating/assisting with a social networking site, prison records show.

In 2018, more than 2,600 inmates were disciplined for unlawful possession of a cell phone, according to the sheriff’s department.

The new charges against Jackson are not gang related, Lott said. The investigation began after a woman told law enforcement that someone had shot into her home on Percival Road shortly after 1 a.m. on April 28.

The woman said she used to date Jackson, and he was behind the shooting as well as the destruction of her vehicle, which was found with several bullet holes and on fire in June 2019, the sheriff’s department said.

She told law enforcement that Jackson threatened to shoot up her home if she did not provide information on another person. When she refused, he warned she would be the target instead, according to the release.

The sheriff’s department said Jackson has been tied at least two additional shootings. One was on Aug. 12, 2018, at a home on Swandale Drive where people, including one who had previously been in a relationship with Jackson, said two of their vehicles were shot at while parked at their home, according to the release.

The second incident was on Aug. 27, 2019, at Humphrey Drive where a home was shot at, and the sheriff’s department said its investigators found evidence of Jackson having threatening about a shooting.

Investigators said multiple cellphone numbers have been connected to Jackson, and he regularly used Facebook Messenger to communicate despite being locked up.

Jackson was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of burglary and armed robbery following an October 2011 arrest, Richland County court records show. Jackson was not eligible for parole, according to the Department of Corrections.

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 10:28 AM.

Noah Feit

The State

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Noah Feit is a Real Time reporter with The State focused on breaking news, public safety and trending news. The award-winning journalist has worked for multiple newspapers since starting his career in 1999. Support my work with a digital subscription