‘We’re doing everything we can with all we have,’ DOC Director Testifies To Subcommittee

Columbia, SC (WOLO)– This morning, the director of the DOC testified in front of a Senate sub-committee discussing morale in prisons, staffing, and medical care for inmates. Sen. Karl Allen said the incident at Lee Correctional raised a red flag, but since that incident, they have received some disturbing letters talking about the conditions, and that is what made them recognize something needs to be done quickly.

“Some of these letters indicate that this is a ticking time bomb, that we will see something along this line very soon. And we assume that’s why the department has remained in a lockdown status for a lengthy period of time,” Allen said.

All prisons across the state remain on lockdown. Those at the subcommittee hearing said not letting inmates have any recreation is inhumane and really harms morale with inmates, but that is not the only thing they were pressing Dir. Brian Stirling on.

“We want him to further recognize this morale issue is not only among inmates but among employees as well,” Allen said. 

Director Stirling said like many big departments, the DOC has areas where morale is low. However, he says they are doing as much as they can with the resources they have to make changes, like hiring more than 100 new officers. 

“The biggest thing that’s going to boost morale is more officers. If someone else is there, someone who has your back, that’s going to make a difference,” Stirling said. 

DOC is also paying officers more competitive wages, and even overtime once they get hired. Stirling says he is even trying to do little things to boost morale like bringing in ice cream and getting new uniforms.

“To folks who aren’t in the corrections environment, that doesn’t sound like a big deal. That’s a big deal to our officers and I hope they see what we’re doing,” Stirling said. 

The letters also outline a lack of medical care being given to inmates since the lockdown. Stirling said with their limited budget they have had to get creative to provide care, like partnering with Palmetto Richland and MUSC for digital health records.

“We pay 82 million dollars in medical and that’s all we can afford. We’re doing everything we can with all we have, trying to come up with innovative things,” Stirling said. 

Thursday is the very last day of general session for the legislature so they were pushing to get a timeframe from Stirling on when they can talk to inmates and officers confidentially and Stirling said he would start working on it immediately.