COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina's prisons agency is seeking additional money to better protect officers who watch over the state's most violent inmates.
Department of Corrections officials are to present their budget request Tuesday to a House panel.
Gov. Nikki Haley recommends spending an additional $10 million in 2013-14 on prison upgrades. The Republican governor says the money doesn't go to prisoners, but rather the officers that protect the public from them.
She says officers are entering unsafe conditions daily.
The request includes building two watch towers at Lee Correctional in Bishopville, where inmates took guards hostage twice last year. The money would also buy cameras and metal detectors, replace weapons bought as far back as the 1960s, buy vehicles and pave roads.
Haley also recommends salary raises for officers in maximum-security prisons.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
