By Robert Kittle
WLTX
LEE, S.C. — Gov. Nikki Haley wants South Carolina lawmakers working on next year’s state budget to come up with an additional $18 million for the state Department of Corrections to improve safety for state corrections officers and the public.
She included the money in her budget proposal after two hostage situations at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville last year. A corrections officer was stabbed during one of them.
In her State of the State address on January 16th, Haley said, “As a legislator, it was always my belief that giving money to corrections was giving money to criminals, and that there were better, more noble places our tax dollars should go.”
Now, she says, she realizes the money isn’t going to prisoners; it’s going to the officers and protecting them.
Full story: $18M sought to improve safety for officers at state prisons