Alex Murdaugh held in secure single cell under 24/7 surveillance amid safety fears

Disgraced legal descendant Alex Murdaugh is under 24-hour surveillance in a cramped concrete cell amid fears he is a target for other inmates at the high-security Kirkland Correctional Institution.

The former lawyer, who will spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul, now spends up to 23 hours a day in his filthy cell, with just a steel bed, toilet and sink.

Prison officials believe his former life as the patriarch of a prominent legal family makes him a target for other inmates at the notorious prison, which houses some of the state’s most violent criminals.

The meals are brought to Murdaugh, 54, in his cell and he eats alone. He is also escorted by at least one prison officer whenever he is given a short break from confinement.

Murdaugh will spend 45 days in the cell while Department of Correction officials conduct medical tests, assess his mental health and “gather additional background information.”

The Kirkland Correctional Center will be Murdaugh’s grim new home for the next several weeks as he undergoes an evaluation to see where he will be sent permanently.

Alex Murdaugh with his wife Maggie and their sons Buster (left) and Paul (right)

After evaluation, he will be transferred to general population in Kirkland or to another prison, depending on the findings. Because he is a double murderer, Murdaugh is housed with the most brutal and violent inmates in the state.

The bleak conditions are in stark contrast to the prime world of multimillion-dollar homes from the coast to the Lowcountry hunting grounds you’re used to.

Another mugshot of Murdaugh was released yesterday showing him smiling, with a shaved head and dressed in yellow prison jumpsuit and a white T-shirt.

Murdaugh was sentenced last week to two consecutive life terms after he was found guilty of fatally shooting his wife Maggie, 52, and their youngest son Paul, 22, on the family’s hunting estate in Moselle La night of June 7, 2021.

Kirkland is home to more than 1,700 of the state’s most violent criminals and passes through more than 8,000 prisoners each year for evaluation.

In addition to serving as the processing site for all convicts in the state, it is also home to a specialized maximum security prison for the most dangerous and violent criminals.

Adjacent to the prison is the Broad River Correctional Institution, which houses high- and medium-security inmates.

Alex Murdaugh is led out of the courthouse to a prison van waiting to start his life sentence.

More than 700 inmates died in South Carolina prisons and jails between 2015 and 2021. Most of those deaths occurred in Kirkland (160) and Broad River (101).

“Kirkland is also responsible for the maximum security unit that houses some of the most violent and dangerous inmates in the state,” the website says.

“In addition, the Kirkland Correctional Center houses inmates who are in the state’s protective custody program.”

Trial attorney Robert Rikard tweeted on the eve of Murdaugh’s sentencing: “Tomorrow will be a very different day for Murdaugh. After sentencing, instead of going to the county jail, he will go to Reception and Evaluation on Broad River Rd.

Your head will be shaved and you will undergo a series of tests.

‘You will then be assigned to a South Carolina Department of Corrections facility. Because he is convicted of a violent crime, he will go to a facility that only houses violent criminals. The worst of the worse.

‘It will be a very different scene than in the county jail. These are brutal environments and it will be quite a shock after the privileged life he has lived.’

Judge Clifton Newman delivered a scathing ruling earlier, describing Murdaugh as a “monster” who continued to lie even when the evidence was damning.

‘This case qualifies under our death penalty statute based on the legally aggravating circumstances of two or more persons killed by the defendant by an act or pursuant to a plan or course of conduct. I do not question at all the decision of the State not to prosecute the death penalty.

More than 700 inmates died in South Carolina prisons and jails between 2015 and 2021. Most of those deaths occurred in Kirkland

Most prisoner deaths in the state occurred in Kirkland (160) and Broad River (101)

This undated file photo provided on July 11, 2019 by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the new death row at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.

‘But as I sit here in this courtroom and look at the many portraits of judges and other court officials and reflect on the fact that for the past century, your family, including you, have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom. court and many have received the death sentence, probably for minor conduct.

Remind me of the expression you gave on the witness stand. Oh, what a tangled web we weave. What do you mean by that?’

“I mean when I lied, I kept lying,” Murdaugh replied.

‘And the question is when will it end? When will it end? And it’s over for the jury, because they’ve come to the conclusion that you’re still lying, and they lied throughout your testimony. And maybe with all the crowd of people here, they mostly believe or 80 or 90 or 99% believe that you continue to lie now when your denial statement in court.

Murdaugh learned his fate in the same courtroom where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried cases as an elected prosecutor for more than 80 years.

His grandfather’s portrait hung in the back of the courtroom until the judge ordered it removed for the trial.