Jailers charged with taking bribes, smuggling contraband into SC prisons
Fourteen former S.C. Department of Corrections employees have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of taking bribes to smuggle contraband into state prisons.
The contraband included drugs and cellphones.
State officials have said illegal cellphones played a role in spreading last week's deadly prison riot at Lee Correctional Institution near Bishopville. Seven inmates died in that riot — the nation's highest prison death toll in 25 years.
"The S.C. Department of Corrections is facing a crisis in contraband," U.S. Attorney Beth Drake said at a news conference Wednesday.
However, the indictments, announced Wednesday, are not the result of a new investigation.
Instead, federal charges are being brought against former prison employees who already have been tried on state charges or face pending state cases involving contraband from 2015 through 2017.
Drake defended the new charges.
"It is not uncommon for the federal system to pick up a case where there is a significant federal interest when there has been a disposition at the state (level)," Drake said.
A priority for federal law enforcement in South Carolina is making cases where "public employees or officials ... are abusing their position of trust," Drake said. If federal authorities believe "the result at the state (level) did not vindicate the federal interest ... then we will pursue that case."
However, Connie Breeden, a lawyer for one defendant, told The State she questioned whether it was necessary to file new federal charges against her client for an offense that had been tried in state court. "The purpose of the criminal justice system is to rehabilitate folks, and if these folks have been rehabilitated already, what more can the federal system do?"
Federal penalties often are far stiffer than sentences handed down in state court for similar offenses. In the bribery-and-contraband cases announced Wednesday, most of the defendants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
South Carolina's understaffed prison system — which has 21 prisons and 19,300 inmates — has been buffeted by murders, riots and widespread use of illegal cellphones and other contraband.
Drake announced the indictments with state Corrections Director Bryan Stirling; the FBI's top agent for South Carolina, Jody Norris; and State Law Enforcement Division assistant chief Paul "Cricket" Grant.
Drake said the indictments were the result of a state-federal investigation into S.C. prisons that began more than a year ago. "Federal tools" have been used to supplement investigations by the state's Department of Corrections, she said, declining to give details..
9 guards among those charged
Nine of those indicted were former Corrections officers; others included a nurse, a groundskeeper and food service employees. None of the indictments appears related to last week's deadly riot at Lee.
The former Corrections employees worked at the Allendale, Broad River, Leiber, Lee, McCormick, Perry, Ridgeland and Tyger River prisons, Drake said.
In an afternoon hearing at the U.S. courthouse in Columbia, all but one of 14 defendants received a preliminary bond of $50,000.
One defendant, Sharon Johnson-Breeland, was given a preliminary bond of $100,000 because of the amount of methamphetamine — 50 grams or more — that she was charged with having. That charge carries a federally mandated minimum sentence of five to 40 years.
Allen Burnside, Johnson-Breeland's court-appointed attorney, told Magistrate Judge Shiva Hodges that his client can't afford such a high bond. She is the sole caretaker for three school-age children and already has served 10 months on state charges for the same offense, he said.
Those indicted were:
▪ Johnson-Breeland, 29, a corrections officer, charged with taking bribes in 2016 to smuggle contraband, including marijuana and methamphetamines, into a prison
▪ Rachel Burgess, 39, a corrections employee, charged with taking bribes in 2015 and 2016 to smuggle cellphones and marijuana to inmates
▪ Joshua Cave, 29, a corrections officer, charged with taking bribes in 2017 to smuggle contraband to inmates
▪ Jamal Early, 23, a corrections officer, was charged with taking bribes to distribute cocaine within a prison
▪ James Harvey, 54, a corrections employee, charged with taking bribes in 2017 to smuggle contraband to inmates
▪ Douglas Hawkins, 29, a corrections officer, charged with taking bribes in 2015 to smuggle contraband into a prison for inmates
▪ Robert Hill, 53, a corrections employee, charged with taking bribes in 2015 for smuggling contraband to inmates
▪ Darnell Kleckley, 33, a corrections employee, charged with taking bribes in 2015 to smuggle contraband to inmates
▪ Holly Mitchem, 37, a corrections employee, charged with taking bribes in 2015 and 2016 to smuggle contraband to inmates
▪ Frank Pridgeon, 64, a corrections officer, charged with taking bribes in 2015 to smuggle a cellphone and cocaine into a state prison
▪ Catherine Prosser, 60, a corrections officer, charged with taking bribes in 2016 to smuggle contraband, including marijuana, to inmates
▪ Camille Williams, 65, a corrections officer, charged with taking bribes in 2015 to smuggle contraband to inmates
▪ Miguel Williams, 41, a corrections officer, charged with taking bribes in 2015 to smuggle contraband to inmates
▪ Shatara Wilson, 29, a corrections officer, charged with taking bribes in 2017 to smuggle contraband, including marijuana, into a prison
Earlier this month, a federal trial in Columbia illustrated how easy it is for an inmate to get a cellphone and drugs in a S.C. prison.
In that trial, inmate Michael Young was found guilty of ordering a bomb on the internet in an attempt to kill his ex-wife. Testimony showed Young got his cellphone from a guard who also furnished him with drugs.
Young also used his cellphone to get 6 pounds of marijuana a month shipped to Columbia as part of a drug-smuggling operation that he was running from prison, according to testimony.
This story was originally published April 25, 2018 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Jailers charged with taking bribes, smuggling contraband into SC prisons."