The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) and the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) have launched a homicide investigation after an “inmate-on-inmate altercation” resulted in one fatality on Monday afternoon.
Forty-three-year-old Damon Latroy Doyle succumbed to his wounds following an altercation at Broad River Correctional Institution near Columbia, S.C.
Broad River is an all-male, level three (maximum security) facility.
Doyle’s SCDC page is no longer online, but according to reporter Noah Feit of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper, Doyle was serving life sentences for assault and battery with intent to kill and kidnapping – along with a fifteen-year sentence for strong-arm robbery.
(Click to view)
(Via: S.C. Department of Corrections)
Transferred to Broad River in April of 2018, Doyle (above) was not eligible for parole.
The Broad River fight was separate from a stabbing that occurred on Monday at Lieber Correctional Institution, another all-male, level three (maximum security) facility in Ridgeville, S.C.
News of the latter incident was reported exclusively on this news outlet.
Two narratives have emerged in the aftermath of these latest outbreaks of violence inside Palmetto prisons. The first is obvious: That SCDC, which has been rocked in recent years by surging violence, remains incapable of getting its inmates under control.
The other narrative, however, is that increasingly aggressive measures to stem the flow of contraband into SCDC facilities (including new netting and scanners) is working – prompting inmates to fight over an increasingly scarce supply of prohibited items.
It is not clear whether either the Broad River or Lieber incidents involved disputes over contraband items, although we suspect more information on both situations will become available in the days ahead.
-FITSNews
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(VIA: GETTY IMAGES)