MORE PROBLEMS FOR SCDC …
There aren’t a lot of things we believe state government should do. Cops, courts, roads, bridges, prisons … not much else, honestly. Unfortunately, South Carolina’s bloated government performs (or tries to perform) so many non-essential services that its most basic obligations routinely get short shrift.
Take the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) – which has bounced from one scandal to the next under its current director, former gubernatorial chief of staff Bryan Stirling.
The latest drama? A massive methamphetamine ring run from inside the walls of a pair of SCDC facilities – using smuggled cell phones to direct shipments and payments of the drug.
A statewide grand jury has indicted nearly three dozen people from four different states in connection with this ring, according to S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson. Two of those arrested are inmates at SCDC institutions.
According to the grand jury, SCDC inmates Robert Anthony Gracely, 44, and Nicanor Perez Rodriguez, 37, were using smuggled smart phones to direct drug deals and conduct other criminal transactions from within two different correctional institutions.
Enterprising, huh?
Obviously this website has long supported the decriminalization of recreational drug use – and we’re all for inmates learning “life skills” while behind bars – but the situation at SCDC has gotten ridiculous.
South Carolina’s prisons have become havens for contraband, especially smart phones. We don’t know whether “jamming” frequencies – as proposed last year by former governor Nikki Haley – is the answer, but it’s looking increasingly as though additional steps are going to be needed to deal with this growing problem.
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