Inmate at prison in Jasper Co. died of an overdose in 2018. Now his family is suing
The family of an inmate who died of an overdose in 2018 at Ridgeland Correctional Institution is suing the prison for negligence.
The mother of Robert Ellinger filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the S.C. Department of Corrections.
The lawsuit blames understaffing and negligence for allowing the presence of contraband into the prison, including drugs.
SCDC does not comment on pending litigation, according to spokesperson Chrysti Shain.
On Oct. 7, 2018, Ellinger, then 46, injected methamphetamine and Fentanyl while in his prison cell, the document said.
Around 11:45 a.m., Ellinger’s roommate alerted a nearby guard after he became unresponsive. The guards brought nurses, who tried to perform CPR on him. He was pronounced dead at 12:24 p.m.
“A large number of its inmate population carried or had access to contraband,” the lawsuit said, and “SCDC knew or should have known that its conscious failure to provide adequate security measures would result in unsafe conditions.”
At Ridgeland Correctional in 2018, there was “consistent demand and opportunity” for contraband, according to Tom Roth, a former Illinois prison administrator and corrections expert.
SCDC hired Roth to spend months studying understaffed prisons and author a report with recommendations in March 2018.
“What is unusual at Ridgeland is the consistent volume of incidents related to contraband compared to other facilities reviewed,” Roth wrote in his report. “For many inmates at Ridgeland, possessing or the attempt to possess contraband appears to outweigh the risk and perceived probability of being apprehended.”
Roth points to a declining security staff for the rise in contraband incidents at the prison.
In January 2018, SCDC spent more than $8.5 million installing large netting around several prisons, including Ridgeland Correctional, to stop people from throwing contraband over the walls to prisoners.
Ellinger had several felonies, including kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct, and armed robbery, that landed him in the Jasper County prison, according to his criminal record from S.C. Law Enforcement Division.
After he was charged with possessing contraband while at Ridgeland in 2016, Ellinger had years added onto his sentence.
In the lawsuit, Ellinger’s family is asking for more than $1 million.
