STATE BRIEFS

SC council cancels survey

COLUMBIA — A planned survey of state Department of Corrections employees was canceled after the South Carolina prison chief sent an email ahead of time advising workers of the survey.

The State of Columbia reported Sunday that the Legislative Audit Council canceled the survey after Corrections Director John Ozmint sent the e-mail June 17.

"It is easy and tempting to blame your immediate superiors, your senior leadership or this agency for low pay, low staffing, crowded prisons and insufficient equipment," Ozmint wrote in a June 17 email to prison system employees, telling them about the upcoming Audit Council survey. "However, all of those problems are controlled by lawmakers.

"If you choose to answer the survey," the e-mail concludes, "do so honestly."

Ozmint also criticized the survey in a newsletter, calling it an attempt to blame administrators for the prison system's problems, which include a number of legal judgments against the agency. Just one award cost $600,000 in an inmate-beating case.

Ozmint said a lack of money is the system's biggest problem.

Legislative Audit Council Director George Schroeder declined to discuss the exchange between himself and Ozmint but said the agency continues its overall audit of the prison system.

According to federal auditing standards, Schroeder wrote, "audit organizations must be free from external impairments to independence." Those impairments, according to the auditing standards, could be "actual or perceived" pressures from management or employees.

Chronic underfunding by the Legislature has forced the Corrections Department to leave new prison dorms empty because it cannot pay for staff, Ozmint said. A recent escape from a Broad River prison occurred about 100 yards from an unmanned guard post, he said.

"Everybody knew that Corrections had some incredibly essential needs that were not met" in the state's budget, Ozmint said.

The prison system asked for a $21 million increase in its budget this year, then increased that amount to $55 million, citing a backlog of expenses. The agency has a total budget of about $336 million.

However, state Rep. Annette Young, the Dorchester Republican who heads the House corrections budget subcommittee, said it was irresponsible for the agency to raise its request, knowing the state was facing a tight budget.

But some legislators say they don't know enough about the prison system's operations to know if more money is needed.

State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, the Florence Republican who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he and many other committee members "have no idea what's going on at the Department of Corrections."

"Do they need more money? Are they using the money wisely?" Leatherman asked. "I've got to know what that means."

Ozmint said he would work with the Legislative Audit Council but added that the General Assembly and state budget need more scrutiny.

"This was a survey to cast blame," he said. "If they're going to cast blame, cast blame in all directions where there is responsibility."

Museum remaining in South Carolina

CHARLESTON — One of the Charleston area's more popular attractions has a home into the next decade.

The Medal of Honor Museum opened a remodeled museum aboard the USS Yorktown last year. It will remain aboard the aircraft carrier at least five more years.

Officials of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum plan to sign an extension agreement in ceremonies later this week. The Yorktown is at Patriots Point.

Patriots Point officials say attendance has increased 7 percent since the Medal of Honor Museum opened. Medal of Honor recipients will attend Thursday's signing ceremony.