The former compliance director of the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center (ASG) in Richland County was charged Tuesday with obstruction of justice following a monthslong investigation into reports of numerous unreported crimes at the jail.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott announced the arrest of James Lipscomb at a press conference Tuesday. Lott said RCSD’s investigation found that Lipscomb had directed staff at Alvin S. Glenn to not report the death of an inmate in April.
That inmate, Keith Bagley, had overdosed on the drug K2 Spice in his cell on April 7.
“The sheriff’s office was not notified, the county coroner was not notified,” Lott said. “We knew absolutely nothing about the death.”
Not, at least until the following morning, when an ASG staffer called the coroner’s office, Lott said.
Around the same time, a woman who had been released from ASG contacted the Sheriff’s Department to report that she had been sexually assaulted by a guard. That incident never got reported to RCSD either, Lott said.
But looking into that incident triggered an investigation that led to 62 crimes between December and April that Lott said RCSD had not been notified of.
One of those cases involved the assault of a correctional officer at the jail, which led to the arrests of 17 inmates.
“They weren’t even taking care of their own people,” Lott said of ASG staff.
Lott said, however, that “good people” who work at the detention center helped RCSD in its investigation.
“These are crimes we should have been investigating from the beginning,” he said.
Lipscomb is being held at ASG. Lott said the investigation continues.
