McMaster fights plan for sexual predators

State Attorney General Henry McMaster promised to take legal action if sexual predators are moved to a local minimum-security prison from a maximum security prison across town.

“The full weight of the attorney general’s office will intervene legally to prevent that move,” spokesman Trey Walker said.

In a letter delivered to Gov. Mark Sanford last week, McMaster said he is concerned about the state Department of Mental Health’s proposal to transfer the 66 predators. They could move from the maximum-security Broad River Correctional Institution on Broad River Road to minimum-security Manning Correctional Institution on Beckman Drive off Farrow Road.

The proposal is prompted by space issues at Broad River.

McMaster would base his action on the Sexually Violent Predator Act, whose intent, he says, is to keep sexual predators in maximum-security prisons. It is not specifically spelled out in the act that the predators must be housed in maximum-security prisons — only that they must be in “secure” facilities.

“Given the proven propensity of these individuals to commit future acts of sexual violence, I am extremely concerned about plans to house them in a minimum-security facility,” McMaster wrote in the letter.

When Manning was mentioned as a possibility, residents in the nearby Meadowlake Park area who attended a meeting last month said they didn’t want any part of it. Their feelings haven’t changed.

“We don’t need any more of those people. We’ve got enough,” Farrow Road resident Charlie Mae Cornelius said Tuesday.

Sanford is receptive to McMaster’s concerns, spokesman Will Folks said, and has asked his staff to look into the issue.

“But unfortunately, given the splintered executive structure that we currently have here in South Carolina, the governor can only make recommendations to the Department of Mental Health, as its responsibilities fall outside his Cabinet,” he said.

Under Sanford’s proposed restructuring plan, the Department of Mental Health would be brought into the Cabinet, Folks said.

When the sexually violent predator program was implemented, state Mental Health and Department of Corrections officials agreed to designate a unit at Broad River Correctional Institution as temporary housing for these offenders.

But in a statement released Tuesday, Department of Mental Health chief of ctaff Geoff Mason said his department is exploring other options for locating the Behavioral Disorders Treatment Program. Mental Health spokesman John Hutto wouldn’t elaborate when asked whether Manning is still being considered.

“Our decision will have to take into account the availability of funds as well as the fact that the clients in the program have constitutional rights,” Mason said in the statement. “They are not inmates, so the SCDMH is required to provide treatment in an appropriate setting.”

Reach Leach at (803) 771-8549 or leleach@thestate.com