South Carolina

The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) runs the state’s prison system — about 21 institutions statewide, all state-operated. Together they hold roughly 16,000 to 17,000 people. SCDC’s materials generally use the word inmate; this site uses neutral terms.

Where a person is held turns first on the sentence. A person sentenced to state prison is held in an SCDC institution; people awaiting trial or serving a shorter jail sentence are held in a county detention center, which is run by the county, sets its own rules, and is not in the SCDC search.

Newly committed people are processed at a reception and evaluation center first — men at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia, and women at Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution, also in Columbia — before assignment and transfer to a permanent institution. South Carolina has an active death penalty and resumed executions in 2024: men under a death sentence are held at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, where the execution chamber is located, and women under a death sentence are designated to Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution.

To find where someone is held, use the SCDC Incarcerated Inmate Search by name or SCDC number; it covers people in SCDC custody, not county-detention detainees. Incoming personal mail goes directly to the institution (South Carolina does not use an off-site mail vendor), where it is opened and inspected; since October 1, 2025, books and magazines must come directly from an approved vendor (see the mail guide). Use the guides below for the statewide rules at South Carolina prisons, or go straight to a specific institution.