Georgia resident Elaine Jones says she gets “the saddest feeling” every time she drives over the South Carolina border.

That’s because South Carolina is where her brother Alvin S. Glenn was killed while on duty as a correctional officer at the Richland County jail.

Wednesday, Jones drove over that state line to attend a ceremony honoring her brother and other fallen South Carolina law enforcement officers.

She came with eight other family members to see Alvin S. Glenn’s name on one of the granite walls of the new South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

They joined hundreds of other family members of fallen officers at a ceremony on the south end of the State House grounds.

Alvin S. Glenn was 59 when he was killed by inmates during an escape attempt in 2000. The Richland County jail was later renamed in his honor.

At the ceremony, family members dabbed their eyes and held hands as state officials commended the bravery of those who serve in law enforcement.

A bagpiper and a color guard from the Horry County Sheriff’s Department opened the ceremony. After a series of speeches, Cpl. Rusty Myers of the Charleston Police Department played the haunting strains of taps.

Afterward, family members walked to the granite monument, adjacent to the main entrance of the State House. Many posed for pictures in front of the panel bearing the name of their loved one. Others laid flowers, pictures and other mementos in front of the panels.

“What happened to my brother is something you wish would never happen again,” said Jones, 53.

“My hope is that everybody who sees this monument would do as much as they can to prevent it from happening again.”

The granite monument was funded by the General Assembly in 2005. Construction started last May. Its curved walls bear the names of 308 South Carolina officers who died in the line of duty.

The earliest death listed is that of Robert Maxwell, who died in 1797 in a region known as the “Washington District,” the Upstate. The memorial also includes the names of four officers who died in 2005.

Gov. Mark Sanford told those gathered that the monument partly stood for the love and commitment needed to be a law enforcement officer.

“It takes a remarkable love and commitment to stay in place and do what you’re doing when you’re being shot at or the car is coming right for you,” Sanford said. “It shows a remarkable love for the other people in your unit and, frankly, for other people you’ve never seen before.”

North Carolina resident Mary Ann Mazur-Osby, 58, said the death of a law enforcement officer changes many things for the family he or she leaves behind.

“You look at police a whole lot differently. Your whole perspective on law enforcement changes when you lose a family member in the line of duty,” said Mazur-Osby. The Hendersonville, N.C., resident came for the ceremony to pay tribute to her nephew, Andrew John Mazur. Mazur was a deputy with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Department who died in the line of duty in 2003.

Reach Knauss at (803) 771-8507 or cknauss@thestate.com.