Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh is under 24-hour surveillance in a cramped concrete cell amid fears he’s a target for other inmates in the high-security Kirkland Correctional Institution.
The former lawyer, who will spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering wife Maggie and son Paul, now spends up to 23 hours-a-day in his dingy cell, with only a steel bed, toilet and sink.
Prison officials think his former life as the patriarch of a prominent legal family makes him a target for other inmates in the notorious prison, which houses some of the state’s most violent criminals.
Meals are brought to Murdaugh, 54, in his cell and he eats alone. He’s also escorted by at least one prison officer whenever he is giving a brief break from confinement.
Murdaugh will spend 45 days housed in the cell while officials in the Department of Correction carry out medical tests, assess his mental health and ‘gather other additional background information’.
Alex Murdaugh will spend 45 days under 24-hour surveillance in a cramped cell – with only a steel bed, toilet and sink – amid fears he could be a target for other notorious inmates at the notorious Kirkland Correctional Institution
Kirkland Correctional Center will be Murdaugh’s grim new home for the next few weeks as he undergoes evaluation for where to be sent permanently
Alex Murdaugh with wife Maggie and their sons Buster (left) and Paul (right)
Following the evaluation, he’ll be moved into the general population at Kirkland or another prison, depending on the conclusions. As he is a double murderer, Murdaugh is being housed with the state’s most brutal and violent inmates.
The grim conditions are in stark contrast to the privileged world of multi-million dollar homes from the coast to the hunting lands of the Lowcountry he is used to.
Another mugshot of Murdaugh was released yesterday that showed him grinning, shaven-headed and dressed in a yellow prison jumpsuit and white undershirt.
Murdaugh was last week sentenced to two consecutive life sentences after he was found guilty of shooting dead his wife Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, at the family’s hunting estate in Moselle on the night of June 7, 2021.
Kirkland is home to more than 1,700 of the most violent criminals in the state and churns through more than 8,000 prisoners each year for evaluation.
As well as serving as the processing site for all of the state’s convicts, it is also home to a specialized maximum-security jail for the most dangerous and violent offenders.
Adjacent to the prison is the Broad River Correctional Institution which houses both high and medium security inmates.
Alex Murdaugh is led out of the courthouse to a waiting prison van to begin his life sentence
More than 700 prisoners died in South Carolina’s prisons and jails between 2015 and 2021. The majority of those deaths occurred at Kirkland (160) and Broad River (101).
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‘Kirkland is also responsible for the maximum-security unit which houses some of the most violent and dangerous inmates in the state,’ the site’s website says.
‘Furthermore, Kirkland Correctional Center houses inmates who are in the statewide protective custody program.’
Trial attorney Robert Rikard tweeted on the eve of Murdaugh’s sentencing: ‘Tomorrow will be a much different day for Murdaugh. After sentencing instead of going to the county jail he will go to Reception and Evaluation on Broad River Rd.
‘They’ll shave his head and put him through a battery of tests that vet weeks.
‘Then he will be assigned to a SC Department of Corrections facility. Because he’s convicted of a violent crime, he will go to a facility that only houses the violent criminals. The worst of the worst.
‘It will be a much different scene than the county jail. These are brutal environments and it will be quite a shock after the privileged life he has lived.’
Judge Clifton Newman issued a searing sentencing earlier, describing Murdaugh as a ‘monster’ who continued to lie even when the evidence was damning.
‘This case qualifies under our death penalty statue based on the statutory aggravating circumstances of two or more people being murdered by the defendant by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct. I don’t question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty.
More than 700 prisoners died in South Carolina’s prions and jails between 2015 and 2021. The majority of those deaths occurred at Kirkland (160) and Broad River (101)
The majority of prisoner deaths in the state occurred at Kirkland (160) and Broad River (101)
This undated file photo provided on July 11, 2019, by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the new death row at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, SC
‘But as I sit here in this courtroom and look around at the many portraits of judges and other court officials and reflect on the fact that over the past century, your family, including you, have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct.
‘Remind me of the expression you gave on the witness stand. Oh, what tangled web we weave. What did you mean by that?’
‘I meant when I lied, I continued to lie,’ Murdaugh replied.
‘And the question is when will it end? When will it end? And it has ended already for the jury, because they’ve concluded that you continue to lie and lied throughout your testimony. And perhaps with all the throng of people here, they for the most part all believe or 80, 90& or 99% believe that you continue to lie now when your statement of denial to the court.’
Murdaugh learned his fate in the same courtroom on the circuit that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried cases as the elected prosecutor for more than 80 years.
His grandfather’s portrait hung in the back of the room until the judge ordered it taken down for the trial.
