At least 777 deaths occurred in prisons, jails and detention centers across South Carolina from 2015 to 2021, according to a recent report from Incarceration Transparency South Carolina, a project supported by a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law.
The research provides a new comprehensive look at deaths behind bars in SC through public records from state-operated prisons and county jails run by local sheriff’s offices. The findings included demographic information, as well as some detail into how people died and their trial status.
“Our report gives us just a snapshot,” Madalyn Wasilczuk, assistant professor at the USC School of Law, said during an event presenting the report Thursday in Columbia.