SC lawmakers grill state prisons chief over failure to mention inmate’s death
South Carolina lawmakers clashed with state Department of Corrections officials Tuesday after the department failed to tell legislators about an inmate death when lawmakers were asking about that inmate and others.
Legislators tasked with oversight of the state prisons agency spent part of a five-hour hearing June 4 asking Corrections officials about 48 inmates who were transferred to a private prison in Mississippi. After a deadly riot broke out last year at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, those inmates were moved to the Mississippi facility because Corrections officials deemed them too problematic to house at local facilities.
On June 5, the day after legislators asked Corrections about the transferred inmates, The State reported that one of the inmates housed in the CoreCivic facility died. Lawmakers, on Tuesday, asked Corrections about the omission.
“Your answer to a situation that was volatile was to not give information,” S.C. Rep. Micah Caskey, R-Lexington, said.
Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling told legislators that he alerted the committee’s legal counsel to the inmate’s death after the June 4 hearing, but did not tell the larger committee because of security concerns.
“I was trying to balance in my head all of a sudden announcing something like that,” Stirling said.
Caskey then pointed out that fewer than 24 hours after the hearing, the department put out a statement to multiple news agencies about the death.
“I think my aggravation is that in the span of an hour or two, there was a decision to change the plan of attack,” Caskey said. “I’m immensely troubled by this.”
Caskey’s frustration was echoed by Reps. Jeff Johnson, R-Horry, and Gary Clary, R-Pickens.
“For us to sit through a day of hearing and for us to read about it when we get home at night is troubling,” Clary said.
The transferred inmates have been a topic of discussion during the House Legislative Oversight Committee’s review of the Department of Corrections on multiple occasions. Lawmakers have questioned why the inmates cannot be held at state run facilities or in other states with which South Carolina has a housing agreement — options that could save the state money.
This story was originally published June 18, 2019 at 11:51 AM.
