COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County officials say a woman who died at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia had been in the jail for two days before her death.
The 22-year-old female detainee was found unresponsive on Saturday, March 2 in her cell. She was being housed alone in the cell and did not have a roommate assigned to her, according to the Richland County Sheriff's Department.
The sheriff's department said the incident involved a self-inflicted injury and declined to identify the inmate. The Richland County Coroner's Office has not yet said how the woman died but the death is under investigation.
Richland County Government operates the jail. They said Monday that the woman had been booked on February 29 and was facing a criminal charge. The added that she was not on suicide watch and there was no indication she needed to be when she was booked.
"We are devastated by this loss of life," the county said in a statement on Sunday.
This is the first known death at the jail this year. But in the previous year, a series of deaths were part of why the U.S. Department of Justice launched a federal civil rights investigation into the jail last November. The Department of Justice said there was credible evidence of structural issues at the jail that led to stabbings and other assaults.
Since the beginning of 2024, there have been at least four stabbings. The first happened on January 2 between two detainees who were later hospitalized. Other stabbings followed on Jan 3, 7, and 16.
In addition to stabbings, Alvin S. Glenn has had 11 employees arrested since the start of the year on numerous charges, mainly involving providing contraband to employees. Deputies made the latest arrest of an employee on March 1. , when investigators accused the man of taking money from a detainee, a person he knew previously. The jail terminated other employees after investigators found evidence that they supplied contraband to inmates or were involved in misconduct or civil rights violations.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections has some oversight of the jail and has been working with the facility to establish improvements. Alvin S. Glenn leaders have until March 15 to update the facility's corrective action plan and submit it to the state agency.