Seven Inmates Dead, 17 Injured in South Carolina Prison Fighting

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) —
In this file photo, razor wire protects a perimeter of the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, S.C. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford, File)

A South Carolina prisons spokesman said that seven inmates were dead and 17 others required outside medical attention after hours of fighting inside a maximum security prison.

Prisons spokesman Jeff Taillon announced the grim outcome after State Law Enforcement Division agents helped secure Lee Correctional Institution around 3 a.m. Monday.

Taillon said no officers were wounded after multiple inmate fights broke out at 7:15 p.m. Sunday.

Lee County Fire/Rescue said ambulances from at least seven jurisdictions lined up outside the prison to tend to the wounded. The local coroner’s office also responded.

The maximum-security facility in Bishopville houses about 1,500 inmates, some of South Carolina’s most violent and longest-serving offenders. Two officers were stabbed in a 2015 fight. One inmate killed another in February.

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