Spartanburg, Cherokee county jails repeatedly cited for overcrowding

People who picture jails as a place where inmates kick back in comfort and watch TV all day have not peered inside the walls of the Spartanburg or Cherokee county jails.

Both jails are at least 20 years old and look older. Cosmetic improvements, such as fresh paint on the walls and floors, do little to mask the overall physical deterioration of the buildings. Jail officials constantly have to contend with various maintenance problems, from leaky plumbing and flooded floors to cracked lighting fixtures.

The outdated jails also suffer from severe overcrowding conditions, generally doubling the number of inmates that are allowed by state law.

"Most of these (jails) were built 30 to 40 years ago. It's time that something was done about them. They are functionally worn out," said Dru Kennedy of Carter-Goble Associates in Columbia. CGA, a consulting company, is conducting a feasibility and design study on a new jail for Cherokee County. Spartanburg, too, is proceeding with plans to build a new $14.4 million jail with 240 beds, but it will be at least three years before the building is finished.

A little relief will come this week, however, when the county moves some inmates to its temporary jail in the old Sullivan Hardware Building on Daniel Morgan Avenue.

Cherokee and Spartanburg have little choice but to build new jails, since they have been cited for years by the state Department of Corrections for overcrowding problems. The counties also may open themselves up to lawsuits from the inmates if they were to allow unacceptable conditions to continue without trying to correct them, said Blake E. Taylor Jr., director of inspections for the Corrections Department.

But while planners are spending their time developing the new jails, inmates - and jail management - are stuck in deteriorating, overpopulated buildings. The 33-year-old Spartanburg County jail has a rated capacity of 82 inmates. It had an average daily inmate count of 146 in February. That doesn't include the 50 or so inmates the city houses for the county under a contract.

Most of the inmates in the county jail are housed in two primary holding cells that each measure 19 feet by 23 feet with 10-foot ceilings. A recent visit found 25 inmates sharing the cell that was made to hold 16 prisoners. A row of four bunk beds lined against opposite walls was separated by a large picnic table in the center of the room. Extra cots took up much of the floor space in the cell. Inmates say it takes at least a week of sleeping on the floor before you earn your own bunk.

The inmates share two exposed toilets, two small, plastic sinks and one shower with rusting metal walls. A small, circular fan was little match in trying to cool off the stifling heat, which inmates say becomes almost unbearable during summer's extreme temperatures.

"We keep it as clean as we can, but we're extremely overcrowded," said jail Director Larry Powers.

Wayne Carr, waiting to be tried on a marijuana charge, said inmates are forced to sleep on the table during weekends when the number of inmates increases. "You got nine people more than you should have, that ain't healthy," said Carr, who is serving a 35-year sentence for drug convictions.

Conditions are much the same in the Cherokee County Jail, which was built in 1969 to house 17 inmates. The jail averaged twice its inmate capacity in January. Last month, the population dropped to just over two dozen inmates after a two-week term of General Sessions Court in Gaffney.

The Cherokee jail keeps most of its inmates in three main cells, which can generally accommodate up to 40 inmates before the prisoners are forced to begin sleeping on cots. The jail has a contract similar to Spartanburg's that enables it to house inmates, mostly women and juveniles at the Gaffney city jail.

Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton, who took office in January, said the jail would not be having as much difficulty meeting state standards if it were just larger. "It's not the conditions of the jail," he said. "The main thing is it's just not big enough," he said.

The conditions at both jails draw protests from inmates and their relatives, but jail officials are limited by the amount of available space with which they have to work. "We get a number of complaints from the inmates and the family members," Powers said. "Inmates get basically everything that's required by state and federal standards except space."