Charleston County Jail reports inmate death

NORTH CHARLESTON — According to an incident report, members of the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an apparent suicide on June 24 at approximately 2 p.m. at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center.

The ambulance that arrived soon pronounced the detainee dead.

The man, whose identity was not released, was placed in the Behavior Management Unit, the disciplinary housing wing of the prison, and was found hanging from a light fixture with a torn piece of mattress cover tied around his neck, according to the report. .

The state Division of Law Enforcement is investigating.

An inmate died at the Charleston County Detention Center this week, the same week the sheriff’s office resolved the case of another inmate who died and federal officials visited Charleston as part of an ongoing investigation into a potential pattern of harassment.

Since South Carolina began reporting deaths in custody in 2019, there have been at least three apparent suicides in custody, according to the federal Reporting of Deaths in Custody Act. If confirmed, it will be the second such case this year.

The man was found when, around 2:20 p.m., an employee called his cell phone using a microphone and informed him that he was being transferred. When he didn’t respond, officers went to his cell, where they found him hanging, according to the incident report.

Prison staff called the authorities.

Jail officers, medical staff and firefighters performed life-saving measures before paramedics arrived and pronounced the man dead.

In April, 33-year-old Forrest Kreider was found hanging in his cell. He died the same day at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Kreider died at the same time that U.S. Department of Justice officials were meeting with community members to hear concerns about how prison staff treated inmates.

The U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into the Charleston Correctional Facility and the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia last November after receiving reports that multiple inmates at each had died from various forms of mistreatment in recent years.

The investigation focuses on the use of solitary confinement in individual prisons, the use of force and whether they discriminate against prisoners with mental disorders.

According to the Charleston County website, it is unclear why the person who died over the weekend was placed in the behavioral health unit, which is reserved for people who violate jail rules.