Inmate tried sexually assaulting prison employee during attack, SC officials say
An inmate attacked and tried to sexually assault an employee of a South Carolina prison Sunday, the Department of Corrections said.
The attack happened at Lee Correctional Institution, the same prison where seven inmates were killed during fights that lasted more than seven hours in 2018. The prison is in Bishopville, about 50 miles east of Columbia.
The employee was taken to an area hospital, and was released after an examination, the Department of Corrections said on Twitter.
Further information on the employee’s condition was not available.
The attack is being investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), and charges are expected, according to the tweet.
The inmate has not been publicly identified by the Department of Corrections.
Information on what led to the attack, where it occurred in Lee Correctional, and the department where the prison employee worked was not available.
Lee Correctional is a men’s-only, high-security institution, that houses about 1,600 inmates, according to the Department of Corrections. Like other Level 3 prisons in South Carolina, Lee is “designed primarily to house violent offenders with longer sentences, and inmates who exhibit behavioral problems,” the Department of Corrections said.
In addition to the seven inmates killed at Lee in the April 15, 2018 fights, 17 others were injured in the incident, The State reported.
Sunday’s incident was not the first time an inmate at Lee attacked a prison employee, and it has had violent incidents over the years. The State previously reported there have been several large insurrections, including one in which an inmate overpowered a guard and used his keys to free other prisoners from their cells.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
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This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 7:59 AM with the headline "Inmate tried sexually assaulting prison employee during attack, SC officials say."
