A gang attacked her son in ‘understaffed’ Richland jail. New report says violence rising
Eight Blood gang members rushed into Joshua Jordan’s cell at Richland County’s jail while he and his cellmates prepared a cake on March 25, according to reports.
The gang members stabbed him in the head with a shank, beat him with a chair and pummeled him with their fists, the reports and his mother, Pearlean Jordan-Evans, said. When the attack was over, his hand was mangled with broken bones and his face bled from gashes.
“They had blood all over” their cell, a police report said.
The attack made his mother feel helpless and angry. She could barely speak about the assault at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center without tearing up.
“He said, ‘Mom, I’ve been in fights. But I’ve never been beaten like this. It hurt so bad,’” Jordan-Evans said.
At the time of his attack, one detention officer was on duty for four cell blocks, Jordan-Evans said a jail official told her.
Each of those cell blocks, which go by the names Golf, Hotel, India and Juliet, can hold between 50 and 60 detainees. Jordan, who faces a series of charges including attempted murder, was in the India cell block when he was attacked.
An officer was not in the India cell block when Jordan and his cellmates were attacked, Jordan-Evans said and reports reinforce.
The State asked Richland County about Jordan-Evans’ claims and reports concerning the detention center but did not receive a response by Monday afternoon.
An annual inspection conducted late last year highlighted the extent of understaffing at the jail.
If fully staffed, the jail would have 264 detention officers, according to the report from the state Department of Corrections.. In September, the jail had 92 detention officers. That means nearly 65% of detention officers positions were vacant when the inspection was done.
Between 21 and 25 detention officers were watching over nearly 700 detainees on any given shift when the September report was completed.
The staffing shortage has led to an increase in violence, people close to the jail have said. A new report from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department reaffirms that.
The report says that the jail is going through an “escalation of violence and contraband.” The report was completed in late March, which is when the gang attacked Jordan.
Because of the escalation, the jail’s commanders asked Richland deputies to help search three cell blocks, including India where Jordan was housed, according to the report.
Deputies found “13 to 14 shanks,” or self-made stabbing objects, a “tool kit,” “several makeshift razors,” more than 40 prescription pills, marijuana, smoking papers, blunt wrappers, seven cell phones and “several” chargers.
The State has reported on the shortage of detention officers and rising violence since September. A former detention officer said the staff shortage has made the jail more dangerous for officers. A man who was detained for more than three months in the jail spoke about the increasing violence, spurred by the lack of staff, that threatens detainees. Lawyers have said that the jail was in ‘crisis’ with degrading conditions, management and staffing issues, which hindered the attorneys from visiting their clients.
Jordan was taken to a hospital before being sent back to the detention center, where he was put in a medical cell block to convalesce, Jordan-Evans said.
“These are somebody’s children, somebody’s siblings, somebodies parents,” Jordan-Evans said. “They aren’t just numbers. They aren’t criminals. They’re human beings.”
Punished before guilty
Before Jordan was jailed at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, he often played with his two younger brothers and four sisters. They played in the yard with the family’s miniature Dobermann pinscher.
He has a daughter that’s about to turn five, his mother said. Jordan calls her everyday.
She fears what spending time in the Richland County detention center will do to her son.
“He is physically traumatized and mentally traumatized,” Jordan-Evans said.
Jordan is being held in the detention center while he awaits court proceedings on a series of charges.
In November 2020, Richland County deputies charged him with kidnapping, armed robbery, weapon possession during a violent crime, conspiracy and receiving stolen goods, according to court records. He was let out of jail on bond with an ankle monitor.
In December, police said he shot into another car outside of a neighborhood. He is charged with attempted murder and weapons offenses. Police jailed him again and this time he was denied bond.
The September jail inspection report said that 666 of 680 people jailed in Alvin S. Glenn are in “pre-trial detention,” meaning they have not been convicted of the charges they face.
But the dangerous atmosphere, fueled by the lack of detention officers, is already punishing her son despite his presumed innocence, according to Jordan-Evans.
The assault on her son stopped when someone yelled that “police,” meaning at least one detention officer, were coming, Jordan-Evans and a police report said.
Now she can only wonder what scars her son has because a detention officer wasn’t in the cell block.
“I don’t want to see him scarred like that,” Jordan-Evans said. “I don’t want to take that positive image of him out of my head because the jail is understaffed.”
Charges
Witnesses of the attack on Jordan and his cellmate identified eight of the attackers.
While the gang assault is still being investigated, a report said attempted murder charges will be sought against the eight men.
Attempted murder is punishable with up to 30 years in prison.
Allegations related to Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center don’t stop with the reported gang members. Potential criminal charges are hanging over jail staff, administrators or others after a man’s death was ruled a homicide.
Last week, The State reported that 27-year-old Lason Butler died of dehydration.
Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford said she based the homicide ruling on reports that jail staff knew Butler was not eating or drinking but did not act to make sure he was nourished.
Bakari Sellers, who is representing Butler’s family, has said that “deliberate indifference” by jail staff killed Butler and that Richland County has culpability in the death. Sellers told The State last week that “we’re going to hold everyone responsible from county council, to jail staff, to medical providers.”
Houston, Texas-based attorney Audia Jones is representing Butler’s family with Sellers.
A lawsuit against Alvin S. Glenn and Richland County by Butler’s family is expected.
The county has said it has taken steps to attract and retain jailers and improve working and living conditions.
“It’s imperative for the public to know that the health and safety of all individuals at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center are paramount to Richland County,” County Council Chair Overture Walker told The State last month. “The County remains committed to taking actions that promote and/or enhance the health and safety of every individual” at the jail.