For nearly a decade, South Carolina's dirty little secret remained all but hidden behind concrete walls and dense legal papers—until a court ruling this year accused prison officials of running a virtual chamber of horrors for mentally ill inmates.
Following Circuit Judge Michael Baxley's order to fix the problem, prison officials and state legislators are faced with overhauling a damaged system that bred abuse and neglect. But according to experts, the money allocated so far by the state legislature—$1.2 million—isn't nearly enough.
In a three-part investigation published this week in The Post and Courier of Charleston SC, reporters Glenn Smith and Cynthia Bolden take a closer look. The series was produced as part of the 2014 Crime Reporting Fellowship project, sponsored by the John Jay Center for Media, Crime and Justice. Smith was a 2014 Reporting Fellow at this year's John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America.
To read the entire series, please click HERE.