Kirkland Correctional Institution is a state prison for men located in Columbia,
Richland County, South Carolina
Richland County is located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 416,147, making it the second-most populous county in South Carolina, behind only Greenville County. The county seat and largest city is ...
, United States, owned and operated by the
South Carolina Department of Corrections
The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) is the agency responsible for corrections in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It currently has about 4,500 employees and just over 15,000 inmates, in 21 institutions. The agency has its headqu ...
.
Kirkland has a special role in South Carolina's prison system as the point of intake and assessment for all male state prisoners, the site of the state's Maximum Security Unit, and a health care facility. The prison was first opened in 1975, and houses a maximum of 1707 inmates, plus another 50 in the Max unit and 24 in the infirmary. In September 2017,
death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...
inmates were moved to Kirkland Correctional Institution.
It is the prison in which Alex Murdaugh is serving his life sentence. The state's