Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
In a criminal justice system supposedly premised on “innocent until proven guilty,” pretrial detention centers are the exception to the rule.
On any given day in 2021, more than 514,000 people were locked up in city and county facilities colloquially known as “jails.” According to the Prison Policy initiative, 80% of these detainees have not been convicted of the crime for which they were arrested and detained. Even though the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a trial by jury and forbids excessive bail, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights notes that 60% percent of America’s jail population is imprisoned simply because it cannot afford cash bail. Even worse, no one actually knows how many innocent people are killed each year while being held in America’s mass incarceration loophole.
Among this cruel and unusual form of punishment, South Carolina stands head and shoulders above the rest.
On Thursday, the justice department announced two civil rights investigations into the conditions at two detention centers in the state – the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston and the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia. According to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the DOJ’s civil rights division, the department has received credible evidence of medical neglect, use of force, sexual assaults and homicides inside the state’s two largest pretrial facilities. In a press release, the DOJ said the decision was justified based on “an extensive review of publicly available information and information gathered from stakeholders.”
The Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, operated by Richland County, South Carolina has long been at the center of turmoil. In October 2022, a routine inspection found more…
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