COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two guards at a notorious prison were recently indicted for having illicit relationships with prisoners and helping to smuggle contraband into the correctional facility, according to the South Carolina attorney general’s office.

South Carolina Department of Corrections employees Niccole Matthews Al-Saddiq and Candace Elizabeth Smith face charges of misconduct in office, state Attorney General Alan Wilson said Tuesday in a news release. Al-Saddiq and Smith worked at Lee Correctional Institution, the same prison where seven inmates were killed and 17 more were injured during a violent incident in 2018.

As of Tuesday morning, Al-Saddiq and Smith had not been taken into custody, according to the S.C. Attorney General’s Office. Their bonds will be set following their arrests, it said in the release.

The former officers were indicted by a grand jury as part of a multijurisdictional investigation that came to light following an investigation called “Clean Sweep,” according to the release.

In one of the indictments, one of the officers is accused of having an unlawful relationship with an inmate, the S.C. Attorney General’s Office said. That relationship involved the correctional officer “marrying” an inmate in secret, according to the release. That inmate was under her supervision, and she was responsible for securing and guarding the prisoner, the S.C. Attorney General’s Office said.

The prison guards are also accused of corrupting their office and aiding and abetting the smuggling of dangerous contraband to inmates at Lee Correctional, according to the release. They participated in lucrative conspiracies to smuggle large amounts of contraband into the prison, the S.C. Attorney General’s Office said.

Information about what was smuggled, and how it was brought into the prison, was not available.

“These former officers violated the trust SCDC puts in its officers,” South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Joel Anderson said in the release. “Their behavior is not characteristic of our agency or the people who work in our department.”

The case was investigated by the South Carolina State Grand Jury, with assistance from the Attorney General’s State Grand Jury Division, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the South Carolina Department of Corrections Office of the Inspector General and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

The cases will be prosecuted by Assistant Deputy Attorney General David Fernandez, Special Assistant Attorney General Margaret Boykin Scott and State Grand Jury Division Chief Creighton Waters.

“I want to thank the hard work of the State Grand Jury staff and their law enforcement partners in continuing to root out corruption in our state agencies,” S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson said in the release.

Similar crime

The charges about an improper relationship between a prisoner and guard are separate from another similar incident that recently occurred at Lee Correctional.

On April 9, Brittney Larhonda Hickmon was arrested after engaging in a romantic relationship with an inmate, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections. The 34-year-old Camden resident was charged misconduct in office.

Hickmon, who worked at the prison from January 2024 to August 2025, was communicating with the inmate on an illegal contraband cellphone, which she failed to report, S.C. Department of Corrections said. She also sent him money, and has since been fired, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections.

The prison

Lee Correctional is a men’s-only, split-custody prison that houses inmates in “close” (high-security) and “medium security” facilities, according to the Department of Corrections. Like other close prisons in South Carolina, Lee is “designed primarily to house violent offenders with longer sentences, and inmates who exhibit behavioral problems,” the S.C. Department of Corrections said.

The prison is in Bishopville, about 50 miles east of Columbia.

Two inmates at Lee Correctional were killed in separate incidents on consecutive days in December 2025, and five other prisoners have been charged in the deaths, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections.

Mario Leven Harrison, 37, and Xavier Martez Delesline, 33, were stabbed and beaten inside the prison on Dec. 2 and 3 respectively, the S.C. Department of Corrections said.

Another inmate at Lee Correctional died earlier in 2025 in what was originally investigated as a suspicious incident.

On May 9, 40-year-old Leo Jermaine Cheeks was found unresponsive in his cell, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections. Days later, an autopsy was performed, and it showed no foul play, causing the death to no longer be investigated as suspicious, the S.C. Department of Corrections said.

History of violence

These attacks and the 2018 riot are not the only recent violent incidents at the prison.

In September 2024, another inmate at Lee Correctional was killed. Idris Wasim Ballard-Gallardo, 23, died at the prison after he was stabbed while he was in a common area of his assigned housing unit, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections.

Lee Correctional has had other violent incidents in recent years. The State previously reported there have been several large insurrections, including one in which an inmate overpowered a guard and used his keys to free other prisoners from their cells.

Another incident when a prisoner assaulted a staff member happened in February 2020, when an inmate attacked and tried to sexually assault an employee at Lee Correctional, according to the Department of Corrections.

In January 2021, an inmate at Lee Correctional died after a fight with other prisoners.

In another incident at Lee Correctional in November 2020, one inmate was killed after being attacked by other prisoners.

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