Locked Down

From the Post and Courier in South Carolina, Glenn Smith, Tenisha Waldo and Schuyler Kropf: A chorus of flushing toilets fills the silence as inmates wake for breakfast. At 6:31 a.m., the darkness dissipates when the fluorescent lights in the dayroom buzz to life and flicker on. Two women emerge from their cells to clean.

Like clockwork, at 6:35 a.m., the breakfast trays arrive. Officer Davida Breschers calls for the bottom floor inmates to eat first. Most rush to the line with bundles of soiled linen tucked under their arms. Today is laundry day.