CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — Joshua Hamilton is taking over as director of the Chesterfield County Detention Center, a jail that has faced repeated escapes, staffing issues and overcrowding. He said his first priorities are improving safety, security and accountability.
“This community is unbelievable. And I want the jail to be the same standard as the community is,” he said.
Hamilton is preparing to transform the Chesterfield County Detention Center. He says his education and years of military corrections training will help him.
“I’ve done everything from (being an) enemy combatant, detention operations to garrison in jails,” Hamilton said.
The retired U.S. Marine started this week as the jail’s new director.
He’s stepping in after years of problems, including several escapes, including one in September.
Several employees, including the former jail director, were also fired in connection with the recent death of an inmate. That death remains under criminal investigation by SLED.
Channel 9’s Tina Terry asked Hamilton to name three things he plans to change immediately.
“The first three is going to be safety, security and accountability,” Hamilton said.
“But it’s really, it boils down to there’s not a written policy,” he said. “There’s not written post orders for each post, and there’s not, there’s a lot of guesswork when it comes to, ‘How do you respond to certain situations?’ And those are the things I plan to alleviate.”
Hamilton says he expected resistance to new policies and procedures.
“And that’s not what I was met with,” Hamilton said. “I was met with a very eager staff. They’re willing and wanting to learn and to apply some of the structure, and I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of support.”
He’s also hoping for community support for a new jail.
“It’s extremely important,” Hamilton said. “I mean this facility is falling apart, for lack of better words. It’s when these locks, these are like old-school mechanical locks that are outdated.”
Voters will decide Tuesday whether to approve a penny sales tax to help pay for a new jail.
The county jail was built in the 1970s.
The sheriff says he believes improvements could have helped prevent a death over the summer and some of the facility’s other issues.
The bond referendum would fund a $50 million jail. If it fails, the County Council will try to raise property taxes to pay for it.
Channel 9 will closely follow the results on election night.
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