Father of man who died at Greenville jail sues county, SC Department of Corrections
The father of a man who died in the Greenville County Detention Center last May is suing Greenville County and the South Carolina Department of Corrections on behalf of his son.
Both Allan Lindsey Zack, 36, and Randy Eugene Broome, 45, were found dead in their housing unit at the jail on May 12, 2022. An autopsy performed the following day concluded the two men died from acute fentanyl toxicity.
Kyle White, an attorney based in Anderson, filed a lawsuit Friday, June 9, on behalf of Zack’s father, Ronald Zack, in Richland County where SCDC is based. The lawsuit alleges poor conditions at the Greenville facility left unchecked for years by the state corrections department contributed to Allan Zack’s death.
According to the lawsuit, SCDC annual inspections of the jail dating back to 2015 found it was grossly overcrowded and understaffed. For years the conditions were so bad detainees were left unsupervised and cells exceeded capacity, the lawsuit said.
“Supervision was so deficient at the facility that guards were allowed to assist detainees with illegal activities in exchange for payment, including the smuggling of contraband and illicit drugs,” the complaint read.
Lawsuit by Ronald A. Zack on behalf of Allan L. Zack by Kathryn on Scribd
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division was called to investigate Broome’s and Zack’s deaths last May.
"Going to the detention center should not have the potential of being a death sentence. We have an obligation and responsibility to keep those people safe, not matter how angry we are at what we think or know they did," Greenville County Council member, Ennis Fant, said at the time of the incident.
According to a recent report from Incarceration Transparency, 13 deaths occurred at the facility between 2017 and 2021. Documents retrieved by The Greenville News from SCDC show five deaths occurred at the facility in 2022.
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Prior in-depth reporting from The News found the Greenville Detention Center among one of the deadliest jails in the state with 27 deaths from 2008 to 2019.
Detention centers that fail to meet the minimum standards required by state law, as alleged in Zack’s lawsuit, are at risk of being shut down by the state Department of Corrections.
Kathryn Casteel is an investigative reporter with The Greenville News and can be reached at KCasteel@gannett.com or on Twitter @kathryncasteel
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Father of man who died at Greenville jail sues county, SCDOC
