RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — On the heels of the announcement by investigators that an inmate of Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center was murdered by other inmates there, News19 has learned of another death that happened weeks earlier.
As a matter of record keeping, all inmate deaths at South Carolina detention centers must be reported to the South Carolina Department of Corrections. One of those records shows that an inmate at the Richland County-operated detention facility died hours after being jailed there on Jan. 17.
The record states that Demond Thompson had been arrested and charged with possessing meth or cocaine base around 2 a.m. The 47-year-old man was pronounced dead at 4:20 a.m. the same day at an area hospital.
The inmate death report shows that Thompson's cause of death was still pending a toxicology report. However, it shows his condition upon being admitted to the jail as "stable."
At the time of the death, the report shows that there were 34 officers on duty with an "actual count" of inmates at 769 being housed.
News19 has requested additional information from Richland County government and the Richland County coroner's office.
A request was also made with the Richland County Sheriff's Department which often investigates jail deaths jointly with the coroner's office and takes the lead on criminal investigations. A department spokesperson said it had not been called to investigate the Jan. 17 death.
The previous death now brings the total at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center up to three since December and the fourth in just under a year.