Wrongful-death suits filed in SC prison riot

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Two lawsuits filed today allege that South Carolina corrections officials violated prisoners' constitutional rights by failing to prevent a riot in which seven inmates were killed last year.

In the lawsuits, advance copies of which were provided to The Associated Press before they were filed, representatives for the estates of two male inmates killed in the April 2018 insurrection at Lee Correctional Institution say security officers and agency personnel knew about dangerous problems at the prison but did nothing to fix them, violating the men's due process rights and subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishment.

The suits, filed by the estates of Raymond Angelo Scott and Corey Scott, who were not related, blame Corrections Department officials for numerous problems, including broken cell door locks, chronic overcrowding and understaffing they say made it easier for inmates bent on violence to get away with having homemade knives, hatchets and other contraband weapons.

With only one officer monitoring more than a hundred inmates in the dorm – a regular occurrence due to staffing shortages, officials have said – Lee inmates were "largely left unsupervised throughout the day and night," leading to a dangerous situation, according to the lawsuits.

No charges have been filed in the riot, which raged for more than seven hours in Bishopville, about 40 miles east of Columbia. State police spent a year reviewing the case before forwarding findings to prosecutors, who are still reviewing them. The state Corrections Department didn't immediately comment on the lawsuits.

Officials have said the violence – the worst U.S. prison riot in 25 years – began as a battle over contraband and territory. Corrections officials have blamed it in part on illegal cellphones. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has said they represent the greatest security threat inside prisons because they give inmates an unmonitored way to communicate with the outside world and each other, and in some cases to wage criminal acts from behind bars.