Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s prison system is changing the way it handles inmates in solitary confinement, according to a newspaper report.
Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling told The Greenville News that he has ordered a limit on what the prison system calls “disciplinary detention.”
The new policy means offenses that could have resulted in years in solitary now will have a cap of 60 days.
It’s part of a new disciplinary policy that also lets inmates earn back privileges with good behavior. According to Stirling, some inmates can still be held indefinitely if prison officials think they pose a threat to others.
“We feel like we’re in the forefront of disciplinary detentions in the country,” he said.
The change comes after years of criticism about using solitary to discipline mentally ill prisoners and a class-action lawsuit over the issue. Former Circuit Judge Michael Baxley cited the use of solitary confinement last year in his order finding the prison system had violated the constitutional rights of inmates with serious mental illness.
Stirling says cases of inmates currently in solitary will be reviewed. The state and the plaintiffs in the 10-year-old lawsuit reached an agreement last month that would increase staff, revise policies and improve facilities.
Stirling said he made the decision before the release of a nonprofit’s report this month showing the prison system has brought more than 400 disciplinary cases in the past three years for inmates’ use of social media, including 16 cases in which prisoners were confined in solitary for more than a decade. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which obtained prison records under the state Freedom of Information Act, more than 40 inmates received two years in solitary. One man received 37 years.
Stirling said he doesn’t dispute the foundation’s findings but said the new policy prevents any future “stacking” of solitary detentions. Republican Sen. Mike Fair of Greenville, chairman of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee, said he was pleased at Stirling’s decision.