Richland County public defender says jail situation is ‘dire’ in rare public statement
In a rare public statement, Richland County’s leading public defender said the situation at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center is “dire” after a detainee’s death, years of understaffing and questions about condition.
“Our community is facing a dire situation with the understaffing crisis at (the Richland County jail),” 5th Circuit Public Defender Fielding Pringle said. “We have been and will continue to seek the release of as many clients being held in pretrial detention at (the jail) as possible.”
Pringle typically does not make public statements, choosing to remain a force behind the scenes of criminal cases in Richland and Kershaw counties. Her statement comes after Lason Butler, 27, of Orangeburg, was found dead in his cell at the Richland County jail on Feb. 12.
Butler had been jailed since Jan. 31 on charges of reckless driving, failure to stop for police and driving with a suspended license. Court records show that he was granted a bond on Feb. 1 but hadn’t gotten out of jail by the time of his death.
Why he was still in jail is unclear. If detainees can’t arrange payment for their bond, they remain jailed.
Butler was the third detainee to die in the jail since January, according Richland County Coroner Nadia Rutherford.
Prominent civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers and Texas-based attorney Audia Jones are representing Butler’s family.
“That pig sty on Bluff Road needs to be shut down,” Sellers said about Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. “You wouldn’t house animals in there.”
In December, The State reported that understaffing at the jail worsened a riot that left two guards injured, one so severely that he was at risk of losing sight in an eye.
“The working conditions (for jail staff) and the living conditions for the detainees are horrible,” former guard Vincent Giebler told The State.
County Administrator Leonardo Brown told The State in December that actions have been taken to improve working conditions and technology and to retain officers at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
