By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal

goliver@upstatetoday.com

PICKENS — Eight inmates at the Pickens County Detention Center have been charged with physically assaulting two other inmates last month.

Pickens County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy Creed Hashe said Isaiah Rakeesh Grant, 24, of Butler Road Apartments, Greenville; Trevor Lance Williams, 27, of Ray Martin Street, Greenville; Matthew Quinn Gillespie, 28, of Old Shirley Road, Central; Timothy Antuan Wilson, 33, of Westchester Road, Easley; Jessie Robert Bridges, 24, of Wolf Creek School Road, Pickens; Argelius Conbrien Croft, 28, of Arnold Drive, Pickens; Eddie Coleman Powell, 33, of Avis Lane, Liberty; and Jeremiah Matthew Little, 17, of McRogers Drive, Easley, were each charged with two counts of third-degree assault and battery by mob and are each being held on additional $6,000 surety bonds — $3,000 for each count. [cointent_lockedcontent]

Two male victims were taken to the emergency room for treatment of blunt-trauma injuries and subsequently released back to the detention center after the April 22 incident in the POD, which is an open area by design and typically used for the general population.

Although the POD has a rated capacity of 32, the chief deputy said on the day of the event about 65 inmates were assigned to that area of the facility due to issues associated with overcrowding.

“The rated capacity for the entire facility is 93, and on the date of the assault, the total population was 226 inmates,” Hashe said, adding that the inmates charged are all being detained within various areas of the facility on those and other unrelated offenses.

According to arrest warrants, the victims were kicked, stomped and beaten with a sock containing batteries, causing lacerations to the head and face.

Pickens County sheriff Rick Clark has long expressed a desire for a new jail, saying the present facility is too overcrowded. In 2014, representatives of the National Institute of Corrections, county council and the sheriff’s office met to brainstorm ways to address the issue of a facility designed for a capacity of 91 but that, in reality, holds more than 200 prisoners.

“We routinely see that confrontations among inmates tend to rise during periods where the jail population grows well over 200,” Clark said Thursday. “Our officers work diligently to make the environment as safe as possible, but the number of people in such a small area of square footage is a huge challenge.

“I am encouraged by council’s movement to investigate potential solutions to this issue, and it is my hope that appropriate measures will continue to be taken to minimize the risks and hazards exposed to our detention personnel and to the inmates that are detained within the facility.”

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