Prisoner’s relatives describe hunger, mold and violence at Richland prison

Sekeyna Walker’s body was racked with sobs. Her voice trembled, and she looked up, apologizing to anyone who might be listening.

“I thought my son was exaggerating, but then I heard all these stories and now I know he’s telling the truth,” Walker said.

Her son is incarcerated at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County. The survivor of the St. Patrick’s Day shooting uses a walker to get around the prison.

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When Walker spoke, her son was still in custody, without regular access to food or medication, she said. He often wasn’t fed until 3 p.m., leading to flare-ups of Crohn’s disease. His toilet was overflowing with feces, he had nightmares and complained of rats in his cells. Part of the ceiling fell on him, Walker said.

But her son’s story was familiar to every one of the eight family members who spoke to the media before the Richland County Council meeting Tuesday night. Those speaking were mothers, friends, wives, brothers and sisters of Alvin S. Glenn inmates, many of whom had been there for months, if not years. All had been diagnosed with mental illness.

The family members were gathered by Disability Rights South Carolina, a nonprofit that provides advocacy and legal assistance to people with disabilities in South Carolina. The group has filed a federal lawsuit against Richland County, alleging it violated the civil rights of inmates with mental illnesses. On Tuesday, attorneys and two family members of the inmates went to the Richland County Board with their concerns about the situation at the jail.

“The last time I saw my son, he was walking,” Marie King said, the gold crucifix on her chest rising and falling as she fought back tears. “He’s not walking now. I still ask them, what happened to my son? Why is a mental patient in jail with a violent person?”

Angela Brannon’s son, Dashan King, was given an anticonvulsant that caused him to lose a dangerous amount of weight. He told his mother that he rarely bathed and that prison guards sometimes demanded that he send them money through CashApp, a mobile payment app, to buy meals.

Joshua Steven McGraw, an inmate speaking on the phone held by his wife, said he had no water for several days while he was on suicide watch. Water often didn’t come out of the faucets, or when it did, it was brown, and the toilets overflowed with sewage, McGraw said.

“They’re treated like dogs,” said McGraw’s wife, Tamara.

One of Sharon Williams’ relatives, an inmate at Alvin S. Glenn Correctional Facility, found a bloody Band-Aid in a piece of cornbread. Judge Gibson said his brother had been attacked by corrections officers.

“Our men and women come home psychologically destroyed after years of sitting in these conditions,” Walker said.

About two-thirds of the patients in the Alvin S. Glenn case suffer from a mental illness, said Stuart Andrews, one of the attorneys for Disability Rights SC.

“You have a constitutional obligation,” said Andrews, of the law firm Burnette Schutt McDaniels, in the Richland County Council. “When you take someone’s liberty away, you have to provide them with all the health care, all the medical care they need. And the 600-plus people in the county jail who need mental health care don’t have the opportunity to get the full range of care.”

The Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center has faced criticism for years over deaths, violence, poor conditions and understaffing. In November, the U.S. Justice Department announced it was opening an investigation into whether conditions at the prison violated the civil rights of inmates.

“For the past 15 months, I have held the hands of family members who have had to bury their loved ones,” Adair Burroughs, the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, said at the time. “I have spoken with law enforcement officers who do not feel safe entering these spaces, and I have met with community advocates who are deeply concerned about what appear to be ongoing constitutional violations at these facilities.”

Richland County administrators say they are continuing to take steps to improve conditions at the jail.

“I would like to strongly disagree with the way he (Andrews) portrayed Alvin S. Glenn,” District Attorney Patrick Wright told the media Tuesday evening. “There were some concerns. They were addressed and are being addressed.”

The state Department of Corrections, which oversees the prison, has found significant improvements, Wright said. Eleven prison employees were arrested earlier this year in an anti-smuggling crackdown.

Significant upgrades were made to the kitchen and several living units, but Wright acknowledged there were delays due to supply chain and vendor issues, as well as the logistical challenges of building and upgrading an operating prison.

Wright stressed that the county had a responsibility to maintain the jail as a short-term facility. While there have been people who have been there for up to five years, “that shouldn’t be happening,” Wright said. Many inmates are awaiting placement in state mental health facilities or have cases tied up in the backlogged court system, Wright said.

“We are not the Department of Mental Health, we do not have a facility to house mentally ill people. We have staff trained to deal with short-term detention, that is what a short-term facility is.”