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Conditions of detainee confinement at South Carolina’s Alvin S. Glenn detention center – a.k.a. “The Glenn” – violate basic constitutional rights, according to a new report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Issued on Wednesday (January 15, 2025), the report concluded deplorable state of the facility – and its chronic mismanagement – violated both the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by failing to “provide reasonable safety and to protect incarcerated people from serious harm and death by physical violence from other incarcerated people, including assaults with weapons, assaults by multiple people on single victims and sexual assaults.”
“For years, people incarcerated at (the Glenn) have been endangered due to systemic problems that have enabled severe violence and avoidable harm to persist,” the report (.pdf) concluded. “There were at least 60 stabbings in the Jail in 2023. Gangs frequently prey on incarcerated people. Weapons, drugs, and contraband cell phones are commonplace and facilitate gang control and violence in the jail.”
“When violence occurs or contraband is found, (jail staff) often fails to respond with proper investigations and appropriate discipline to enforce jail rules,” it continued. “Our investigation found that a lack of sufficient staff, a deteriorating facility, and systemic lapses in security operations, such as deficient prisoner supervision, inadequate internal investigations, and lax contraband prevention, result in an ongoing failure to adequately protect incarcerated people from violence. These factors, and others detailed in the report, are known to (jail) leadership and contribute to our finding of unconstitutional conditions.”

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“Incarceration in our nation’s jails should not expose a person to severe and pervasive violence like that in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center,” assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke stated. “Most people in the jail have not been convicted of any crime — they are awaiting hearings or trial dates. They have a right to be free of violence, threats and sexual assault. The Jail has a constitutional duty to protect people in its care from the horrific violations we uncovered here. We hope Richland County and the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center will respond to our findings by working with the Justice Department to implement much-needed reforms.”
South Carolina’s top federal prosecutor also addressed the pervasive, persistent carnage at the facility – which is located approximately seven miles southeast of downtown Columbia, S.C.
“The conditions inside the Richland County jail are a matter of life and death,” U.S. attorney Adair Ford Boroughs noted. “Individuals accused of crimes in Richland County should not face a death sentence before they ever see a court room. By addressing the remedial measures outlined in our findings, we believe this can change. We hope to work with Richland County and the detention center to make it a safer place for both detainees and staff.”
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"Individuals who are charged with a crime and detained at Alvin S. Glenn face very real possibilities of being stabbed, raped and beaten before they ever see a courtroom.
— Dylan Nolan (@dnolan2000) January 15, 2025
Such conditions violate the United States Constitution."@AdairFromSC @USAO_SC pic.twitter.com/1InMP4Gnil
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As FITSNews reported in November of 2023, the investigation was launched after attorneys Bakari Sellers and Alexandra “Ally” Benevento of the Columbia, S.C.-based Strom Law firm sent a letter to the DOJ imploring its civil rights division to investigate “subhuman conditions” and “an ingrained culture of violating civil rights of detainees” at the jail.
Sellers and Benevento’s letter (.pdf) accused jail staff of “facilitating, participating in, or failing to intervene in (violent) attacks,” and of having “routinely not provided (inmates) with the most basic necessities required under state and federal law, including running water, adequate medical care, bathing opportunities, or clean clothing and bedding.”
In the aftermath of that challenge, jail officials claimed to have developed a “remedial action plan,” however a detailed security audit of the facility conducted in July 2023 by the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) revealed little change.
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RELATED | SOUTH CAROLINA DETENTION CENTER CRISIS
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“It should come as no surprise that some conditions at your detention center are in need of immediate attention and improvement,” SCDC division director Blake E. Taylor Jr. wrote in a letter (.pdf) to county leaders.
The federal report laid bare those conditions…
In one section, it slammed jail leaders for failing to use “a consistent or accurate system to track and analyze violent incidents.”
“(The jail)’s tracking and reporting mechanisms obscure the full extent of the violence and risk of harm at the jail,” the report noted. “It is difficult to determine the true scope of violence… because (the jail) does not keep complete or accurate records of violence in the facility.”
Still, even the facility’s “incomplete documentation demonstrates that the violence is pervasive.”
“Based on our review, (the Glenn) had almost four times as many stabbings in 2023 as the Miami-Dade County Jail, with less than a quarter of the population,” the report noted. “The rate of stabbings at the jail, adjusted for average daily population in 2023, is roughly equal to New York City jails where a federal court recently held (the city) in contempt for non-compliance with remedial orders.”
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Holy wow, Richland County, S.C. Your jail is out of control. pic.twitter.com/jcTikuE5zX
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) January 15, 2025
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“(The) violence does not appear to have significantly abated in 2024, despite recent measures implemented by (the jail,” the report continued. “One log provided… which demonstrably underreports violence incidents… shows 152 assaults between incarcerated people from January to September 2024, the most recent period with data available. In the same nine-month period in 2023, there were 155 assaults.”
Excerpts from the federal report make gritty jailhouse dramas like Oz seem downright campy by comparison.
“In (one) instance, two incarcerated people entered (a) victim’s cell and began beating and stabbing him,” the report noted. “(Staff) took no action in response to the fight until the victim’s mother called two days later. One month later, in a second incident involving the same victim, an officer found him with cuts and bruises on his face and body, but only after other incarcerated individuals told the officer that someone was bleeding and needed to go to the medical unit. (Staff) had to send the victim to the hospital. In a third incident, (jail) records note that the same victim was attacked by four incarcerated people, one of whom had a weapon. In a fourth incident, in February 2024, at least seven incarcerated people attacked the same victim. Staff did not respond until another incarcerated person called Central Control and reported that the victim was ‘bleeding and crying to be let out of his pod.'”
In yet another incident, a detainee allegedly “reported to jail staff extortion and threats of violence” in May 2023.
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“Although staff moved the victim to another housing unit, around a week later, he was attacked and stabbed multiple times by five or six individuals who told him that he would have to ‘pay in blood.’” the report noted. “The officer assigned to the housing unit did not discover the victim’s serious injuries until a routine security check.”
The deteriorating conditions at “the Glenn” are no surprise to anyone.
“Correctional facilities should never be permitted to deteriorate to the point many of them have,” I noted in March of 2023, citing issues at the prison. “South Carolina can – and must – do better at every step of its criminal justice system, including once violent criminals have been taken off of the streets and placed in the care of our correctional institutions.”
In September 2023, FITSNews published an editorial saying federal and state officials “must intervene” in the crisis.
“The Alvin S. Glenn detention center has become the equivalent of a radioactive ‘exclusion zone,’ especially when it comes to someone taking accountability for the hellhole it has become,” our editorial noted. “Richland County is utterly incapable of fixing this facility – which becomes less safe by the day. Unfortunately, it seems equally clear no one wants to take ownership of the mess the county has created.”
Benevento, one of the attorneys who sounded the alarm on the jail two years ago, told this media outlet it was past time jail officials took “meaningful action” to address the ongoing violence.
“The DOJ report confirms what we have known for years: ‘Violence is pervasive’ at the Alvin S. Glenn detention center,” Benevento told FITSNews. “The facility’s consistent, woeful failure to provide even the most basic levels of protection to those it holds for safekeeping is reprehensible. We are grateful to our U.S. attorney Adair Boroughs, and to Kristen Clarke and the entire team at DOJ Civil Rights for their hard work and dedication in conducting this investigation. We regret that it took such tragedy to get here. Far too many have suffered and many have lost their lives. Now it is our sincere hope that Richland County take immediate and meaningful action to remedy these constitutional violations.”
This is a developing story… please check back for updates.
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THE REPORT…
(Source)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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1 comment
Looks like this jail will be going under consent decree.