By Christian Boschult cb os c hult@postand c ourier. c om Feb 25, 2026 SPARTANBURG — South Carolina inmates used to represent a large chunk of those receiving free publications from Asheville Prison Books, which sends hundreds of free titles most months to incarcerated people in the Carolinas. But that was before October, when the S.C. Department of Corrections banned inmates from receiving books from anyone but six specific book sellers chosen by corrections staff. Inmates c

Jon Ozmint, a former director of the S.C. Department of Corrections, contends that the state parole system is dysfunctional and unfair. File/Andrew Whitaker/Staff By Andrew Whitaker awhitaker@postandcourier.com Jon Ozmint is a former director of the S.C. Department of Corrections. Provided Decades of evidence proves that a functional parole system makes us all safer. Human beings don’t function well without hope, and the hope of parole incentivizes good behavior and reformati

COLUMBIA — The S.C. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled the state’s lifetime sex offender registration requirement is unconstitutional and people who demonstrate a low risk of reoffending should be able to petition a judge to have their names purged. The June 9 order demands the General Assembly change the law to bring South Carolina in line with other states that provide offenders a path off of similar Megan’s Law-type registries. The law is named for a 7-year-old in New Jer

By MICHELLE LIU Moore is one of three prisoners on South Carolina’s death row who have run out of appeals in the past six months and could be among the first to face the grim choice under a new state law. But his supporters — including the state’s former prisons chief — say he deserves better. The state Supreme Court set and then stayed the prisoners’ executions after the Corrections Department said it didn’t have the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections . Now, Gov.

by Jon Ozmint A recent column in The Post and Courier by Steve Bailey started like this: “Here is what the people who run South Carolina’s prisons don’t want you to know: that a month before America’s deadliest riot in a quarter century they were warned that the state’s correctional system was operating with half the staff required to keep it safe.” Mr. Bailey is a fine writer and, in the past, I have found him to be fair. But with this premise, he missed terribly. Stretching

by BARTON SWAIM news that Pope Francis has revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church to designate the death penalty “inadmissible” was greeted in the American media as evidence that the church is at last catching up with the times. That assessment, superficial though many Catholics will consider it, isn’t altogether wrong. The Catechism , published in Latin and an English translation in 1992 and largely the product of Pope John Paul II and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later

The assassin broke through the front door shouting “police” as Capt. Robert Johnson of Bishopville, S.C. was getting ready for work early in the morning March 5, 2010. Johnson, a prison guard at the Lee Correctional Institution (LCI), immediately knew two things: He had to get the assassin’s attention in order to protect his wife — sleeping quietly in the nearby bedroom — and the hit was undoubtedly connected to a strange visitor he encountered the evening prior. “I instantly

Here in South Carolina, the wireless carriers have had quite a successful and profitable week. From news accounts, the pre-paid minutes and data that carriers sell to providers of anonymous, pre-paid phones have been used by gangs to spread deadly retaliation orders from one unit to the next during gang fighting at Lee Correctional. They seem to have been the tool of choice for a state Department of Corrections (SCDC) inmate on trial for running a drug a drug and bombing cons

Thomas Lawton Evans Jr., previously locked up for armed robbery, was released Feb. 1 on “community supervision” to a Spartanburg County apartment that authorities approved. He was apprised of a multitude of state services, assigned a caseworker and given a check-in date. Everything was by the book. But Mr. Evans, 37, never showed up for the scheduled meeting with his caseworker. He has since been accused of going on a crime spree, charged with beating a suburban Johns Island

COLUMBIA, SC In 1995, the S.C. Department of Corrections — like many other prison systems across the country — was in the midst of record-setting growth. The prisons were already plagued by over-crowding and aging, insufficient infrastructure when the war on drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences, two- and three-strikes laws and the abolition of parole began packing in even more prisoners. The problem was further exacerbated by outdated and ineffective security practices

The State - BY JON OZMINT Problems created by turning prisons into society’s primary mental health institutions date back to the 1970s, exacerbated by tough-on-crime legislation in the 1980s and 1990s. Years before 2003, studies determined that our Department of Corrections (SCDC) needed more mental health resources. In 2003 and after, additional evaluations identified deficiencies and recommended changes. SCDC made many improvements and asked the Legislature for funding to i

On June 15, an attempt to take a cell phone away from a prisoner at Trenton Correctional Institute in Edgefield County set off a riot, causing six guards to barricade themselves in a dorm overnight until they could be rescued. Two guards were injured in the initial struggle to seize the phone. Just a few days earlier, 34 people were indicted in a methamphetamine ring run by South Carolina prisoners in maximum-security lockups in Columbia and Bishopville. According to the indi

On Sunday, families across our state will come together to celebrate fathers. A parent’s influence in the life of a child is unmatched, and holidays like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day provide an opportunity to recognize the essential work moms and dads do every day to build strong families and raise healthy and happy children. Yet every day, thousands of South Carolina children are separated from a parent due to incarceration. The overwhelming majority of incarcerated parents

On June 15, an attempt to take a cell phone away from a prisoner at Trenton Correctional Institute in Edgefield County set off a riot, causing six guards to barricade themselves in a dorm overnight until they could be rescued. Two guards were injured in the initial struggle to seize the phone. Just a few days earlier, 34 people were indicted in a methamphetamine ring run by South Carolina prisoners in maximum-security lockups in Columbia and Bishopville. According to the indi

by Gavin Jackson COLUMBIA — Sentencing reforms passed in 2010 have greatly reduced South Carolina's prison population, saving the state from having to spend at least $491 million to construct and operate new prisons, according to a recent report. Incarceration times for non-violent offenders, the creation of more parole opportunities and a declining crime rate have collectively helped reduce the number of South Carolinians behind bars. In turn, it has led to the closure of si

"By God's grace, Tyger River Lower Chapel will be a great sanctuary for all incarcerated individuals and an agent of change for those seeking the truth and a better life". - Jon Ozmint Tyger River Chapel Foundation hosted our first Awareness Event on November 15th at the home of Jackie and Charlie Hodge. Our speakers included former South Carolina Director of Department of Corrections, Jon Ozmint. The faith community was invited into South Carolina's prison system when Jon s

The Post and Courier Concertina wire surrounds Lieber Correctional Institute in Dorchester County, near Ridgeville. (Grace Beahm/File) Over the past six years, we have made significant progress in improving our criminal justice system. The Sentencing Reform Act of 2010, coupled with national population trends, has reduced our inmate population, allowing Gov. Nikki Haley and Corrections Director Bryan Stirling to shutter several small prisons. From improving mental health care

The New York State Police have arrested 57-year old Clinton Correctional Facility Correction Officer Gene Palmer of Dannemora, NY. Palmer is charged with Promoting Prison Contraband 1st Degree, a Class D Felony, two counts of tampering with Physical Evidence, Class E Felonies, and one count of Official Misconduct, a Class A Misdemeanor. The arrest is the result of the ongoing investigation into the escape of inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt. Palmer pleaded not guilty and

Former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections Jon Ozmint said he has seen some of the hardest of criminal hearts turn for good among inmates serving life sentences for murder. But, Susan Smith hasn’t seemed to “turn that corner” yet, Ozmint said. He said the public and media’s continued fascination with the case is one of the things that inhibits Smith from moving past the attention she received after confessing to drowning her two small children 20 years ag

An inmate at Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution for women keeps a wheelchair tucked away in the corner of her small, cinder-block cell. She has a walker, too. The wheelchair and walker are just two of the signs of the exploding population of aging inmates in South Carolina’s prisons. Another sign? The dollar sign, as in the increasing cost that S.C. taxpayers will have to pay to care for those aging inmates. In the past decade, the number of S.C. inmates age 55 a