Jail assault: Corrections officers assaulted by inmate

Published 8:53 pm Monday, October 21, 2013

Steven Jackson

Steven Jackson

 

A man imprisoned for common law robbery now has a list of assault charges against him.

Steven Louis Jackson, 26, of Windley Road in Washington, was charged with malicious conduct by a prisoner, three counts of assault on a government official, injury to real property and injury to personal property.

According to a press release from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, a series of three escalating assaults took place starting the afternoon of Oct. 18.

The release said that by 3 p.m. of that day, Jackson had pulled a section of the metal protective screen covering the outsides of the cell away from the cell bars, and threw a small object through the hole in the screen, hitting a detention officer.

At the time, it was reported Jackson had ripped apart the sleeping mat in his cell but it was at 5 p.m., when officers attempted to replace the destroyed bedding, that Jackson doused two of the officers with milk through the holes in the cell’s security screen, the release said.

Later, he would switch to urine, striking an officer on a mandatory security check in the face and torso, according to the release.

Jackson has been incarcerated since Aug. 26, either in the Beaufort County Detention Center or, when the jail was shut down because of electrical problems, in various prisons in the region. According to Maj. Kenneth Watson, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, Jackson had been separated from the jail’s general population for disciplinary reasons.

Both Jackson and the detention officer who was struck with urine will have to undergo medical testing to determine if any communicable diseases were transmitted during the assault, the release said.

Because of fire hazard, Lexon glass panels that previously protected detention officers from items and substances thrown by inmates were ordered removed by state inspectors in 2012.

At the time, jail administrator Capt. Catrena Ross, said, “If the Lexan comes down, we have to have something up, or it’s going to be rough in there.”

The replacement choice was steel-mesh panels that provide little barrier to liquids.

Watson said he couldn’t say how often assaults like this occur in the jail.

“It would be difficult to put a schedule on it,” Watson said. “I think it would be less likely to happen if we had a modern facility with solid doors and observation windows.”

Prior to the assaults, Jackson’s bond stood at $20,000, but had an additional $50,000 tacked on for the new charges. Jackson was transferred to a Department of Corrections facility for safekeeping, where he will remain until his next court date on Nov. 21.