Prison Agency Seeks to Stop Contraband with Netting

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – South Carolina’s prisons agency wants to install netting along the fences that surround its high- and medium-security prisons to prevent people from tossing over cellphones and other contraband.

The State Fiscal Accountability Authority on Tuesday approved the project’s design phase, expected to cost about $113,000.

Corrections Director Bryan Stirling told the board the netting is a low-cost way of stopping the flow of contraband to prisoners through backpacks, duffel bags and other containers thrown into prison yards over the razor wire.

Installing the netting system around 11 prisons is expected to cost $7.6 million. The agency would need additional approvals before installation can begin.

The system would involve 50-foot-high poles, mesh designed to withstand up to 160 pounds of force and rope borders with a breaking strength of 5,500 pounds.