Twenty South Carolina prisoners have been killed at the hands of fellow inmates in the past 16 months. The staggering amount of violence, which includes the gang-fueled bloodshed that left seven prisoners dead and 22 injured this week at Lee Correctional Institution, has some legislators calling for more oversight and transparency at the state Department of Corrections.
At a news conference, Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said officers stormed in and took the first of three dorms back from rioting prisoners about four hours after the melee began. He said the officers were assembled at the rural prison as quickly as possible and went in only when it was safe to do so.
Click to Gallery
Twenty South Carolina prisoners have been killed at the hands of fellow inmates in the past 16 months. The staggering amount of violence, which includes the gang-fueled bloodshed that left seven prisoners dead and 22 injured this week at Lee Correctional Institution, has some legislators calling for more oversight and transparency at the state Department of Corrections.
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2016, file photo, razor wire protects a perimeter of the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, S.C. A South Carolina prisons spokesman says several inmates are dead and others required outside medical attention after hours of fighting inside the maximum security prison. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford, File)
After the institution was back under control, it then took more time to get injured inmates to hospitals. The prison is located 40 miles east of Columbia.
A fence surrounds the Lee Correctional Institution on Monday, April 16, 2018, in Bishopville, S.C. Multiple inmates were killed and others seriously injured amid fighting between prisoners inside the maximum security prison in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
"The burden comes back to the General Assembly, what are you going to do?" he said.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, left, and South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling address the media at a press conference Monday, April 16, 2018, in Columbia, S.C., regarding a deadly prison riot at the Lee Correctional Institution. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
Violence at Lee and other institutions throughout South Carolina is not surprising, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster noted at the news conference. McMaster echoed Stirling's call for the ability to jam cellphones in prison but didn't propose any other substantive alternatives. "We do the best we can," the governor said.
This shows the Lee Correctional Institution on Monday, April 16, 2018, in Bishopville, S.C. Multiple inmates were killed and others seriously injured amid fighting between prisoners inside the maximum security prison in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2016, file photo, razor wire protects a perimeter of the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, S.C. A South Carolina prisons spokesman says several inmates are dead and others required outside medical attention after hours of fighting inside the maximum security prison. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford, File)
After the institution was back under control, it then took more time to get injured inmates to hospitals. The prison is located 40 miles east of Columbia.
"It shouldn't take five hours to get in there and put some water on these fires," said state Rep. Justin Bamberg, a Democrat and lawyer whose clients include the families of several inmates who were attacked in previous instances.
Contraband cellphones and staffing shortages are often blamed for many of the department's woes. Stirling, who oversees 21 prisons and more than 19,000 inmates, has said he's hired some of the 500 corrections officers he needs, but stresses the need for funding more officers.
Sen. Gerald Malloy, whose district includes Lee Correctional, said the government has a responsibility to keep the prison population safe and thinks lawmakers need to look at whether cost savings in corrections has been efficient.
This shows the Lee Correctional Institution on Monday, April 16, 2018, in Bishopville, S.C. Multiple inmates were killed and others seriously injured amid fighting between prisoners inside the maximum security prison in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
A fence surrounds the Lee Correctional Institution on Monday, April 16, 2018, in Bishopville, S.C. Multiple inmates were killed and others seriously injured amid fighting between prisoners inside the maximum security prison in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
"The burden comes back to the General Assembly, what are you going to do?" he said.
Stirling - who served as then-Gov. Nikki Haley's chief of staff before she appointed him to lead the prisons in 2013 - said his No. 1 security threat is cellphones, which gives inmates unfettered communication allowing them to commit crimes inside and outside of prison. He said the riot started Sunday night as a gang war over territory, money and illegal items such as cellphones.
Stirling has urged the Federal Communications Commission to allow the prison to block or jam cellphone signals to prevent inmates from using them.
A police vehicle sits outside the Lee Correctional Institution on Monday, April 16, 2018, in Bishopville, S.C. Multiple inmates were killed and others seriously injured amid fighting between prisoners inside the maximum security prison in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, left, and South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling address the media at a press conference Monday, April 16, 2018, in Columbia, S.C., regarding a deadly prison riot at the Lee Correctional Institution. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
Violence at Lee and other institutions throughout South Carolina is not surprising, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster noted at the news conference. McMaster echoed Stirling's call for the ability to jam cellphones in prison but didn't propose any other substantive alternatives. "We do the best we can," the governor said.
From 2001 to 2014, an average of 60 inmates died annually in state prisons across the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. In 2017, a dozen South Carolina inmates were killed by other inmates.
"That's staggeringly out of proportion," said John Pfaff, a Fordham law professor who tracks prison data. "It makes a prison that is supposed to be a secure facility - a place with no weapons, a place where you can't leave - as dangerous as living in the most dangerous city in America."
In February, an inmate killed a fellow prisoner at Lee, where this week's attack took place among inmates armed with homemade knives used to slash and stab rival gang members. An inmate stabbed two officers in 2015. At Kirkland, another maximum-security prison, two inmates killed four prisoners last year in under an hour.
These undated photos provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows, from top row from left, Corey Scott, Eddie Casey Gaskins, Raymond Angelo Scott and Damonte Rivera; bottom row from left, Michael Milledge, Cornelius McClary and Joshua Jenkins. The seven inmates were killed, and at least 17 prisoners wounded, in a riot at the Lee Correctional Institution on early Monday, April 16, 2018, in Bishopville, S.C. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
For the past few months, The Associated Press has been communicating with a Lee prisoner who used a contraband cellphone to offer insight into life behind bars. He said inmates there roam freely, have easy access to cellphones and drugs, and are often left to police themselves.
The inmate spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity because his cellphone is illegal and he fears retribution from other prisoners. He described a facility run by gangs, and guards who take a hands-off approach because they fear for their own safety.
In the most recent incident, he told AP that officers stayed in a control booth for hours Sunday night, waiting for backup as inmates lay dying in pools of blood. That echoes earlier anecdotes he shared about what happens whenever gang fights break out.
"The Crips and Bloods had a confrontation just a few feet from my cell door and, when the knives, machetes, axes, pipes and body armor came out, the cops were nowhere to be found," he wrote in February.
To get away from the fighting, the inmate said he stays in his cell. But the door lock has been broken for months, so he said he and others jam materials into the lock to try to keep others from coming in.
"ALL of the doors to the cells are broken," the inmate wrote. "At any time, I can let myself out of my cell, to do whatever it is that I would want to do."
Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up on an increasing number of college campuses following last week's arrest of more than 100 demonstrators at Columbia University.
The students are calling for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza — and in some cases from Israel itself.
Protests on many campuses have been orchestrated by coalitions of student groups. The groups largely act independently, though students say they’re inspired by peers at other universities.
A look at protests on campuses in recent days:
Pro-Palestinian student protesters set up a tent encampment at the Ivy League university in New York last week. Police first tried to clear the encampment on April 18, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. But the move backfired, inspiring students across the country and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.
Earlier this week, the Ivy League school, where Monday is set to be the last day of classes, switched to hybrid learning. Commencement is set for May 15.
Columbia officials said that negotiations were showing progress as the school’s self-imposed early Friday deadline to reach an agreement on dismantling the encampment came and went. Nevertheless, two police buses were parked nearby and there was a noticeable presence of private security and police at entrances to the campus.
Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, faced a significant — but largely symbolic — rebuke from faculty Friday but retains the support of trustees, who have the power to hire or fire the president. Hundreds of counterprotesters gathered on the streets outside Columbia on Friday morning, many holding Israeli flags and chanting for the hostages being held by Hamas and other militants to be released.
The University of Southern California has canceled its main stage graduation ceremony set for May 10 as its campus is roiled by protests. The university already canceled a commencement speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns. The Los Angeles Police Department said more than 90 people were arrested Wednesday night for alleged trespassing during a protest at the university. One person was arrested for alleged assault with a deadly weapon. There were no reports of injuries. The university said Wednesday it had closed campus and police would arrest people who did not leave. Friday was the last day of classes.
Police clashed with protesters at Ohio State University in Columbus, just hours after they gathered Thursday evening. Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, said university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson, citing rules barring overnight events. Of 36 people arrested, Johnson said Friday that 15 were students and 20 were not affiliated with the university. The school's commencement is set for May 5.
About 50 students at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., set up a tent encampment on the school’s University Yard on Thursday. Later in the day, a group of Georgetown University students and professors staged their own protest walkout and marched to the George Washington campus to join the protesters there. The protestors are demanding that the university divest from all relations with Israel and lift a suspension against a prominent pro-Palestinian student group.
The university's last day of classes before final exams is set for Monday and commencement is scheduled for May 19. The university was moving law school finals, which were set to be held in a building next to the encampment, to another building because of the noise.
The university said the protesters must remove tents and disperse by 7 p.m. Protesters stayed overnight at the encampment, local news stations reported Friday morning.
University officials closed the campus through this weekend, saying instruction would continue to be remote, after protesters at the university in northern California used furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block entrances to an academic and administrative building on Monday. The last day of classes is May 3 and commencement is set for May 11.
Officials said in a statement Tuesday that students had occupied a second building and three students had been arrested. On Wednesday, officials said some unidentified people who were not students were also inside one of the occupied buildings. On Thursday, the university said protesters continued to occupy the two buildings.
A dean at the school, Jeff Crane, suggested during the meeting that the university form a committee that would include students to do a deep dive into the school’s investments. Crane also suggested faculty and students continue meeting every 24 hours to keep an open line of communication. The sides have yet to announce an agreement.
The school’s senate of faculty and staff demanded the university’s president resign in a vote of no confidence Thursday, citing the decision to call police in to remove the barricaded students Monday.
At New York University, an encampment set up by students swelled to hundreds of protesters earlier this week. Police on Wednesday said that 133 protesters had been taken into custody. They said all were released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. Commencement is set for May 15.
At Emory University in Atlanta, where Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers had dismantled a camp on the school's quadrangle, the school president on Friday said in an email that some of the videos of a clash between police and people on the campus “are shocking” and that he is “horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions.”
“Highly organized, outside protestors” arrived on campus in vans, constructed an encampment and overtook the quad on Thursday, Emory President Gregory Fenves said in the email. However, 20 of the 28 people arrested are “Emory community members,” school officials said.
Video circulated widely on social media shows two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by one officer as a second officer then pushes her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk. In a separate incident Thursday evening, some protesters pinned police officers against the glass doors of the Candler School of Theology on the campus and threw objects at the officers, Emory’s president said.
Northwestern University changed its student code of conduct Thursday morning to bar tents on its suburban Chicago campus as student activists set up an encampment.
Dozens participated as University President Michael Schill issued an email saying the university had enacted an “interim addendum” to its student code to bar tents, among other things, and warned of disciplinary actions including suspension, expulsion and criminal charges.
“The goal of this addendum is to balance the right to peacefully demonstrate with our goal to protect our community, to avoid disruptions to instruction and to ensure university operations can continue unabated,” Schilling said.
The university’s commencement is scheduled for June 9.
A few dozen protesters set up tents and occupied a building Thursday at the Fashion Institute of Technology, part of the public State University of New York system. Protesters sat on the floor or milled around, many wearing face masks and kaffiyehs. Other protesters outside the building held signs and Palestinian flags. They refused to speak to a reporter. Around a dozen protesters spent the night in tents and sleeping bags inside a campus building. The institute’s museum, which is located in the building where the demonstrators set up camp, was closed Friday.
The school's commencement was still scheduled for May 22 and May 23.
After an encampment was set up at Indiana University Bloomington, police with shields and batons shoved into a line of protesters linked arm in arm on Thursday afternoon. Videos posted to social media appear to show the protest continuing after law enforcement stopped making arrests.
In an update Friday, the university police said 34 people were arrested. Public information officer Hannah Skibba said charges include trespassing, resisting law enforcement and battery on a public safety official. One officer sustained “minor injuries." Protests continued Friday, one day before the last day of classes. The university’s commencement is scheduled for May 4.
Jeffrey Kehr, chief deputy prosecutor for Monroe County, said in an email that those arrested were released on their own recognizance and the office will “examine all the reports we receive and any relevant footage to determine what, if any, charges are appropriate.”
A small but growing encampment remained in place early Friday on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. A statement issued by the school said officials were “closely monitoring” the encampment, which had started on Thursday, and had not received any reports of threatening or violent behavior by the protestors. However, they warned that protests or speech that violates the university’s policies, disrupts its business, or causes an “intimidating, hostile, or violent environment” would not be tolerated. The school's commencement is scheduled to take place between May 18 and 20.
Protesters pray at an encampment staged to support the Palestinian cause on the UCLA campus Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A sign calling attention to the conflict in Gaza rests against a tent, Thursday, April 25, 2024, at an encampment of tents on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, in Cambridge, Mass. Students at MIT set up the encampment of tents on the campus to protest what they said was MIT's failure to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to cut ties to Israel's military. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A makeshift camp with a Pro-Palestinian theme is staged on the UCLA campus, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
George Washington University students set tents in the campus during a pro-Palestinians protests over the Israel-Gaza War, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Protesters are cuffed after being detained on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A student walks to class on the campus of Emory University after a pro-Palestinian demonstration, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Georgia State Patrol officers detain a protester on the campus of Emory University during an pro-Palestinian demonstration Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A passer-by, right, walks through an encampment of tents, Thursday, April 25, 2024, on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, in Cambridge, Mass. Students at MIT set up the encampment of tents on the campus to protest what they said was MIT's failure to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to cut ties to Israel's military. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A police officer detains a protester on the campus of Emory Univeristy during an pro-Palestinian demonstration, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Students gather for a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, Thursday April 25, 2024, in Austin. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Authorities detain a protester on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
People sit outside tents at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York on Wednesday April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Student protesters hold up sheets as others pray at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York on Wednesday April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Signs are displayed on tents at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York on Wednesday April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Texas state troopers in riot gear try to break up a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
A woman is arrested at a pro-Palestinan protest at the University of Texas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
A Palestinian flag is displayed at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York on Wednesday April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
A woman raises a fist during a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Cally, a former UT student, faces off with a mounted state trooper at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)
A pro-Palestinian protester walks past pro-Israel protesters at the University of Texas Wednesday April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
A pro-Palestinian protester faces off with state troopers at the University of Texas Wednesday April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Pro-Palestinian protesters face off with mounted state troopers at the University of Texas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)
A woman is arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Students participate in a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)
State troopers try to break up a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)
A woman is arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, Wednesday April 24, 2024, in Austin. (Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in front of Sproul Hall during a protest on the campus of UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., on Monday, April 22, 2024. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters staged a demonstration in front of Sproul Hall where they set up a tent encampment and are demanding a permanent cease-fire in the war between Israel and Gaza. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP)
A student protester sits among the tents erected at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York, Monday April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Pro-Israeli demonstrators chant "Shame" in support of Columbia University assistant professor Shai Davidai, who was denied access to the main campus to prevent him from accessing the lawn currently occupied by pro-Palestinian student demonstrators in New York, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in front of Sproul Hall on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. The Israel-Hamas war protests creating friction at universities across the United States escalated Tuesday as some colleges encouraged students to attend classes remotely and dozens faced charges after setting up tents on campuses and ignoring official requests to leave. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
Student protestors erected approximately 20 tents on Parrish Beach by Clothier Hall at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa. on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Monica Herndon/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
University of Southern California protesters carry a tents around Alumni Park on the University of Southern California to keep security from removing them during a pro-Palestinian occupation on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
University of Southern California protesters carry a tent around Alumni Park on the University of Southern California to keep security from removing it during a pro-Palestinian occupation on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
University of Southern California protester raises an anti war sign in Alumni Park on the campus of the University of Southern California during a pro-Palestinian occupation on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
University of Southern California protesters carry a tents around Alumni Park on the campus of the University of Southern California to keep security from removing them during a pro-Palestinian occupation on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
A University of Southern California protester is detained by USC Department of Public Safety officers during a pro-Palestinian occupation at the campus' Alumni Park on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
A University of Southern California protester, right, confronts a University Public Safety officer at the campus' Alumni Park during a pro-Palestinian occupation on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
A University of Southern California protester is detained by USC Department of Public Safety officers during a pro-Palestinian occupation at the campus' Alumni Park on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
University of Southern California protesters push and shove University Public Safety officers as tempers get heated during a pro-Palestinian occupation on the University of Southern California campus Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
University of Southern California protesters fight with University Public Safety officers as they try to remove tents at the campus' Alumni Park during a pro-Palestinian occupation on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
