Editorial roundup: June 29, 2018

Posted

Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:

The Post and Courier

June 25

Stirling is making progress on prison reform, needs support

Why should we care about what happens in South Carolina prisons? Because 87 percent of inmates will be freed in five years.

And that's a short time for turning around an individual - or a 21-prison corrections system with roughly 19,000 inmates and more than 5,000 employees. But it is happening.

When prisons chief Bryan Stirling took on the Herculean job in 2013, he inherited a Department of Corrections starved of funding since the Great Recession. He realized "we were losing officers left and right." But turning the tide on retention and recruitment took years.

Now, the overall number of correctional officers is rising, pay is more competitive, and the agency is on pace to fill several hundred more authorized positions. Average starting pay for guards is now more than $33,000, up a whopping 28 percent from 2016, and average pay for veteran officers is about $42,000 per year.

Mr. Stirling, formerly chief of staff to ex-Gov. Nikki Haley and deputy attorney general before that, is also making progress on dozens of other initiatives big and small since the April 15 outbreak of violence at Lee prison in Bishopville left seven inmates dead and 22 others badly hurt.

Last week, 48 gang "shot-callers" from various prisons, including Lee, were sent to a private prison in Mississippi, and lockdowns in place since the rioting are being lifted.

Drones are being used to keep watch over prison grounds. Netting is preventing contraband from being thrown over fences. Broken locks on cell doors and dorms are being repaired. A system for blocking illicit cellphone calls is being tested. Emergency response times are being cut and riot squads beefed up.

Spending per inmate is up. Prisoners are getting better mental and physical health care - a telemedicine program is cutting costs - more addiction treatment, more job training and education and more "re-entry" programs that include everything from getting driver's licenses to housing.

Guards are being offered several bonuses from $250-$750, expanded overtime, free boots and new uniforms. Policies against tattoos, facial hair and fingernails are being relaxed, as are some restrictions for hiring relatives of inmates.

"It's amazing how little things matter," Mr. Stirling said, adding he tries to bring ice cream or doughnuts for guards whenever he visits a prison, which is often. "I like to see things for myself."

Surprisingly, he has few complaints. Getting permission to move ahead with important reforms takes too long, he says, but the emergency order issued after the rioting at Lee helped jumpstart efforts that "had been in the pipeline for a long time," and the Legislature is speeding up its approval processes.

Lawmakers are expected to introduce an extensive list of "front end" sentencing reforms as well as "back end" rehabilitation reforms when they reconvene in January.

The state's long-neglected prison system is far from being fixed, but Mr. Stirling is making real progress. He deserves the support, funding and patience needed in order to turn out inmates with a better shot at becoming productive citizens, to provide a safe environment and workplace and to continue to reduce recidivism and the overall prison population.

Stay the course.

The Greenville News

June 24

More training needed about suspects who have mental illness

It is impossible to watch the video of Jermaine Massey's shooting by Greenville County Sheriff's deputies and not feel compassion for everyone involved.

Massey was clearly in emotional distress when he called sheriff's deputies to his Greenville home in March, fearful that he might hurt himself or family members. What followed was a tense standoff between Massey - who refused to drop a knife he was holding - and deputies urging him to surrender the weapon.

After what seemed like an eternity, Massey was shot to death when he lunged toward one of the deputies. After an internal investigation and an investigation by the state's top law enforcement division, the officers were cleared of any wrongdoing.

The tragedy underscores the need for more training of law enforcement officers in how to deal with suspects suffering from mental illness.

The four deputies involved in the shooting had not taken Crisis Intervention Team training, which is provided by the National Alliance of Mental Illness, according to a report by Daniel Gross of The Greenville News. CIT training is an extensive week-long class that helps officers recognize the signs of mental illness and gives them strategies to deal with suspects suffering from mental health issues. It is offered by the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Though we'll never know for certain, local mental health advocate Paton Blough believes the outcome may have been different if the officers involved had taken the 40-hour course. Blough is encouraged that the Greenville County Sheriff's Department has two classes scheduled in the coming months for deputies. One of the classes had been scheduled prior to Massey's death, he said.

Blough has seen the videotape of the shooting and believes the officers did the best they could under the circumstances. He said officers receive limited training in the police academy on dealing with mentally ill suspects.

During CIT training, officers learn to slow down - if possible - when dealing with a mentally ill suspect. By deploying tasers in Massey's direction, the standoff was escalated. Officers learn ways to de-escalate their interaction with suspects in CIT classes. They are also encouraged to redirect the suspect's attention away from the standoff and on to other things, such as relationships with family members.

"You can never 100 percent say what would have happened," Blough said. "But I feel fairly strongly there could have been a different outcome had those officers received the training."

Interim Greenville County Sheriff Johnny Mack Brown seems committed to ensuring that more deputies receive the training, Blough said.

Further, Sheriff Brown's release of the video of the shooting shows his commitment to running a department that is transparent in its dealings with the public. While the video is difficult to watch, the deputies can be seen behaving in a professional manner, urging the suspect to drop his weapon and attempting to use a taser gun to temporarily disable Massey.

Sometimes, it takes a tragic incident to bring about change. If we learn anything from Massey's death, it is that police officers need all the training they can get when it comes to interacting with suspects suffering from mental illness. Such training will give officers more confidence to take on the difficult jobs they do daily.