Grand Jury May Look Into Inmate Death

A grand jury may be probing the 2006 death of Summerville resident James Belli, killed in Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville.

Previous court documents reveal the prison to be "a place where the most violent prisoners ruled the roost, guards suspected one another of corruption and corrections officials turned a blind eye to cancers in their midst," according to this Post and Courier story. 

The state settled with the family earlier this year, according to the story.

Here are the original incident reports on the assault on Belli:

On Wednesday, August 23, 2006 at approximately 6:05 a.m., Inmate James Clifford Belli, Jr., SCDC #314458 was stabbed in the neck area in the Ashley Unit A-Wing at Lieber Correctional Institution. Two inmate assailants have been identified regarding the incident. Medical treatment was immediately afforded to the inmate and he was subsequently transported to Trident Regional Medical Center. All necessary notifications were made to include SLED. The investigation into this incident continues.

Link to original incident report.

On Wednesday, August 23, 2006, the serious assault of Inmate James Belli, Jr. SCDC# 314458 occurred at Lieber Correctional Institution. On Thursday, August 24, 2006, Inmate Belli was pronouned dead at approximately 4:10 p.m., at Trident Regional Medical Center as a result of the injuries received in the assault. As noted previously, suspects have been identified. SLED and SCDC investigators continue to work the case.

Link to the updated incident report.

According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, Lieber houses about 1,400 inmates and is one of eight maximum-security prisons in the state.