The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Questions also are raised about prisons director Jon Ozmint’s selection of an inmate housekeeper and whether he gave her special treatment.

• Personnel issues — a hostile work environment that uses arbitrary procedures to punish detractors and requires lie detectors to track leaks and alters employment test scores for some applicants.

Ozmint challenged the report as “tired, recycled complaints raised by disgruntled employees,” and questioned the fairness of the committee staff. Senate staffers talked to anyone, “who might have some dirt on us,” yet have not given the agency a chance to respond, he said.

Ozmint said the report “found no major problems that are valid. No mismanagement. No corruption that we had failed to uncover.”

The report is intended as a starting point for the eight-member panel, which will select the issues it will examine more closely through sworn testimony or audits.

Committee chairman Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, declined to respond to the report, saying it was intended only for the panel’s use. He said the staff on Monday would provide details not contained in the report. Fair would not elaborate.

The document was compiled after numerous interviews with prison workers, former employees, inmates and their relatives, as well as the public. They came forward voluntarily, though many feared retaliation from the agency, the report states.

Their complaints — presented privately to a staff of two legislative lawyers and a former senior prison official — have not been substantiated by the committee.

PRISON SECURITY

Rules intended to keep prisons safe have been ignored, compromised or broken under Ozmint’s administration, according to the preliminary report.

Violations of generally accepted prison practices resulted in:

• A female employee being taken hostage and repeatedly assaulted by a convicted rapist Nov. 3 at Ridgeland Correctional Institution in Jasper County.

After the rape, prison leaders did not immediately intervene as procedures require, the report states. It said they hoped to contain the tense situation out of concern it “could have a negative impact on the gubernatorial election.”

Five days later, Gov. Mark Sanford became the second governor in 28 years elected to a consecutive term. The Corrections Department is a Cabinet agency that answers directly to the chief executive.

Authorities handled the standoff “in accordance with best practices,” Ozmint said in a nine-page written response to the newspaper.

He said the governor’s office was notified a hostage had been taken and when the situation was resolved. “We will not dignify a baseless lie with any further response.”

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer called the allegations of political considerations “both irresponsible and disgusting.”

Committee member Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, questioned why the convicted rapist was at a medium-security prison in the first place.

Rapist Lloyd Isaac was a maximum-security risk and had been moved to Ridgeland, a medium-security prison. Isaac was moved to serve as an informant for an agency investigator, the senator wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to Ozmint.

Isaac is awaiting trial in February on charges of kidnapping, hostage-taking and rape in that incident, prosecutor Duffie Stone said. If convicted, Isaac would be sentenced to life without parole, Stone said.

• Two inmates escaped in December 2003 from Ridgeland after telling agency leaders — in writing — they would do so.

It was the tandem’s second escape within weeks from the same prison. Normal procedures are to place escaped inmates in a more restrictive prison, the report states.

Ozmint did not respond to the newspaper’s questions about that complaint.

The report cites three other escapes, two of which occurred from Columbia’s Broad River Correctional Institution after guards lost track of prisoners. The most recent was this month by a murderer and a burglar after a supervisor failed to count prisoners correctly. Both were captured.

Ozmint said those were “mistakes made in selected instances.” Overall, escapes are down dramatically. Figures he released show there were 17 escapes last fiscal year, half the rate in 2003.

• During an August 2005 parole hearing at Lee Correctional Institution, a major provided a violent criminal a six-inch knife that had been seized as contraband. The major directed the prisoner to pull it on two women correctional officers, the report states.

Providing a weapon to an inmate is a felony punishable by up to 10 years. The major was neither disciplined nor charged, the report states.

Ozmint said in a March 1 letter to Knotts the prisoner did not threaten the women. The episode was an exercise to show they were negligent in their search procedures, Ozmint wrote. The women missed the shank when they patted down the inmate.

“It was a great idea, except for the use of the actual shank” Ozmint wrote.

Such exercises usually occur in classrooms and do not involve the use of inmates, the report notes.

The women said the episode was intimidation by the major for filing a sexual harassment complaint against him, the report states.

Other security issues mentioned include missing guns and keys inside prisons, and an inmate in a maximum-security prison having a drawing showing all internal and external access points with which inmates might not be familiar.

PRISONER TREATMENT

Several inmates or their relatives reported assaults while prisoners were handcuffed.

Corrections employees also reported abuse. They say there is an increase in the number of broken jaws and medical treatment. The report offers no details.

Ozmint said the complaints are false. “There has been no increase in allegations or confirmed instances of excessive force complaints.”

He said stun guns are not authorized in prisons.

Earlier this year, an inmate was awarded $600,000 from a lawsuit alleging beatings. It is being appealed, Ozmint said.

Prisoners also complained they have been denied food for breaking grooming and talking rules.

Ozmint has said a federal court upheld a similar practice in Wisconsin. But other courts have ruled against it.

WASTED RESOURCES

Prison facilities at the Wateree Correctional Institution near the rural Sumter County town of Rembert have been upgraded using inmate labor and agency materials and equipment, the report states.

Other details alleged include:

• A staff house has been converted into “a guest cottage.” A boat shed and fishing pier were built.

• About 30 deer stands constructed at Trenton and MacDougall correctional institutions were shipped to Wateree.

• A cattle-hauling vehicle was repainted, had chairs installed and got a new roof to convert it for use in dove hunting.

Agency administrators invite guests to hunt or fish.

The report contains no figures on the cost of the improvements.

Ozmint, who has complained for years the Legislature does not provide enough money to run prisons adequately, called the allegations false and reckless.

“No residence at Wateree ... has been renovated as described. We will gladly show you every residence.”

In another complaint, a tree-cutting company owned by an inmate was hired for at least three jobs, despite notification to agency administrators.

“Allegedly, there was a personal relationship between a staff member and the inmate,” the report states.

The company was the lowest bidder, and state law requires the agency to accept the low bid in all contracts, he said.

Ozmint said he banned the company from doing business with the prisons as soon as he learned of the connection with the inmate.

Other concerns listed include use of prison computers to view sexually explicit images and complaints of misuse of agency vehicles.

OZMINT’S HOUSEKEEPER

Dianne Graddick, convicted of murder in Aiken County two decades ago, works for the Ozmint family as a housekeeper. Ozmint calls her a model prisoner and a woman of Christian character.

She was one of several inmates recommended to work in the house by wardens, Ozmint said.

Ozmint changed Graddick’s security rating to allow her to work at his house and live in a nearby prison that has no fences. Ozmint said he made the change for convenience of her daily transports to the house, which is on prison property.

A maximum-security prison is nearby, but moving inmates from there is more restricted.

Graddick works at the 4,500-square-foot house weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Ozmint said. She earns $18.25 every two weeks.

Guards do not routinely patrol the house while Graddick works.

Ozmint said he has the authority to override any agency policy.

“If anybody else wants to ... take the director’s job and live surrounded by eight prisons and 6,500 inmates ... then they should be welcome to chose the inmate of their choice to work in their home around their wife and children,” Ozmint said.

Laws grant the department head “exclusive management and control of the prison system.” But statutes do not say explicitly the director may override any rule.

Committee chairman Fair and committee member Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, question Ozmint’s choice.

“It certainly raises concerns ... about his decision-making,” said Leventis, a longtime critic of Ozmint. “It seems like (Graddick’s selection) would have created a special class of inmates who have special dispensation from the director. There’s not anyone else that could tidy up around his house?”

HOSTILE WORKPLACE

Hirings, promotions and firings have become tools to target critics and reward favorites, the report states.

Employment test scores and inmate and vehicle-use records are altered, often “to cover mistakes.”

The scores are adjusted to hire favorites over more qualified candidates, the report states.

Several staffers complained about the use of lie-detectors to determine who is sharing information with whom, even when a criminal investigation is not under way.

Ozmint called the complaints “intentionally misleading and ... false in all respects.”

The agency uses lie detectors appropriately within the law and policy, and will continue to do so, he said.

Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664.

IF YOU GO

A Senate committee examining complaints of mismanagement in the state prison system is meeting to review a preliminary report by its staff.

When: 1 p.m., Monday

Where: Room 209 of the Gressette office building on the State House grounds