Shocking footage has emerged from inside Lieber Correctional Institution in South Carolina. Orange water from the running faucet and sewage water flooding cells were captured on video from inside of the prison which is known for human rights violations of the people incarcerated there.
Lieber CI has been on an indefinite lock-down since April 2018. Inmate’s windows have been blotted out by storm shutters and calls to SCDC and the warden’s office have yielded only defensiveness and aggression, “Those shutters aren’t coming down! They can see rays of light through the slats.”
Concerned masses have flooded the institution with calls only to be hung up on, screamed at and delivered terse narratives that “the inmates are liars.” Denying clean drinking water and forced exposure to sewage while caged, which puts the incarcerated population at risk for a Hepatitis A [HAV] outbreak, are blatant and severe human rights violations that need to be addressed NOW.
Incarcerated populations are already particularly vulnerable for contracting HAV, Hepatitis A is spread through contact with feces of infected persons or through contaminated food or water. Drug users, individuals experiencing homelessness, people in prison and people who live in unsanitary conditions are at a higher risk of contracting the virus.
It is clear through numerous phone zaps placing pressure on those who create and exacerbate unsafe conditions for the incarcerated inside of Lieber that they are well aware of the violations they continue to commit. Warden Randall Williams’ office has been particularly adversarial and hostile towards anyone asserting that rights of inmates be recognized.
These operations are under the watch of South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster who, like Warden Williams, has been consistently made aware of right’s violations inside of Lieber, yet violations continue unabated.
An ongoing campaign demanding an end to the indefinite lock-down continues. Meanwhile, in the silent space of failed response from every complicit institution in this disaster, inmates have died from deadly violence and suicide in the anxiety and trauma-inducing 24-7 conditions they are forced to exist within.
Institutions committing these abuses must be continually exposed and confronted until violations cease, clean water is restored and dignity is recognized.
