Bryan Stirling

The man who has led South Carolina prisons for more than a decade has been named the new U.S. attorney for the state. Bryan Stirling took the oath of office Monday in a private ceremony at the federal courthouse in Columbia.

Freddie Eugene Owens is scheduled to be executed Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, by lethal injection. Owens' execution will be South Carolina's first since 2011.

South Carolina will join nonprofit Concordance's national effort to reduce the prison reentry rate after a $60 million donation by Wells Fargo that will help open the state's first "healing first" center.

South Carolina's prison director has won a national award for turning around an agency that was near the bottom in the county in funding, salaries and the rate of inmates who return to prison. Corrections Department Director Bryan Stirling was honored Saturday night by the Correctional Leaders Association for the changes in South Carolina prisons over his eight years of leadership. His nomination says Stirling increased starting salaries for officers by $10,000 to $36,000. Stirling was also honored for lowering the rate of inmates who return to prison to the lowest in the country and for improving both security and quality of life for inmates.