No added staffing planned for Lieber prison

State correctional officials have no plans to seek funding for additional manpower despite a riot at Lieber prison Wednesday in which disgruntled inmates overpowered their greatly outnumbered guards.

Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the five-hour riot at the Ridgeville prison. They also want to know how inmates got hold of a pipe used to beat the two correctional officers keeping watch over a dorm with 229 hard-core offenders, department spokesman Clark Newsom said.

Answering those questions will likely take time, and officials have no immediate plans to change policies at Lieber as a result of the riot, Newsom said. Correctional officials also aren't looking to bolster manpower at Lieber or other prisons.

In fact, as workers cleaned up the mess from the riot, department officials were in Columbia Thursday presenting a budget to lawmakers that holds the line on prison staffing.

The proposed $354 million correctional budget includes just $200,000 in new spending, and that would go toward equipment upgrades, Newsom said. The number of correctional officers would remain at about 3,900, supervising nearly 23,000 inmates, he said.

"Obviously, we would always like to have more," he said. "But it is what it is. We're in a tight budget situation and we have to do what we have to do."

A news tip from an inmate?

A man who identified himself as a convicted murderer at Lieber contacted The Post and Courier after the riot, using what he described as a contraband cellphone smuggled into the prison.

Some inmates use cellphones and smartphones that are smuggled into state prisons. Some 2,000 phones were seized in South Carolina prisons alone in 2010.

The man who contacted The Post and Courier said inadequate supervision there has led to cuts in recreation time and other inmate privileges. Prisoners finally rebelled after being locked down in crowded cells for an extended period, deprived of showers and forced to eat stale bologna for several meals, he said.

The inmate, who refused to give his name, said the lockdown occurred after several security breaches, includingholes found chiseled in the ceiling of two dorms and two instances where prisoners were caught outside near the fence. This, he said, all stems from dangerous understaffing that has opened the door to violence and other problems.

"The taking control of the prison took place during a lockdown, thus showing the lack of control even during a lockdown," the inmate said.

Newsom said it is no secret that state budget cuts have been a challenge for the prison system, but he insisted Lieber officials still have the ability to keep inmates in check. And he scoffed when told of the inmate's claim that prisoners could have easily taken over the prison yard and other dorms with the keys they stole from the overpowered guards.

Special operations teams were stationed on rooftops and plenty of force was available to keep the uprising from spreading, Newsom said. Some 200 officers from a dozen area police agencies also surrounded the campus, and at no point was the surrounding public in danger, he said.

"There was no way they were going to get out of there," he said.

Newsom said he has heard reports that inmates were disgruntled with a bologna diet but he doesn't believe cutbacks have resulted in curtailed recreation or shower time. He said the recent lockdown resulted from "several incidents of violence" in recent weeks but he had no specifics to release.

Inmates on a rampage

Though locked down in their cells, the inmates took advantage of a "situation of opportunity" that arose when bedding was being handed out. They assaulted the two guards and stole their keys and radios, Newsom said.

The inmates then rampaged through the dorm, smashing windows, trashing common areas and offices, and setting off water sprinklers. Some rooms filled with 3 feet of water before workers could shut off the flow.

After electricity to the dorm was severed, a force specially trained to handle prison uprisings shot tear gas into the building and later recaptured the inmates. The two guards assaulted in the takeover and two more who had hypothermia from wading in cold water were treated for their injuries and released, authorities said.

Newsom said charges have not yet been filed against any inmates involved in the uprising. Officials also haven't completed an estimate of damage from the incident.

Diane DiLorenzo shuddered when she learned of the riot. In August 2006, her 19-year-old son, James Belli, was killed at Lieber when another prisoner repeatedly plunged a homemade shank into his neck. She maintains that corruption and improper supervision in the prison's Ashley dorm allowed inmates to beat her son the night before he was killed and then stab him the next morning.

Correctional officials have denied wrongdoing in Belli's death, though the state chose to settle a lawsuit brought by DiLorenzo for $450,000 last year rather that go to trial.

DiLorenzo has been pushing for prison reform, including increased staffing to keep better order behind bars. She said she feels like nothing has changed at Lieber since her son's death and more must be done to prevent future violence.

"I am very concerned about the understaffing there," she said. "They are very lucky this was not much worse than it was. I really don't want another mother to get a phone call like I received over stuff that could have been prevented."