By Valencia Wicker
vwicker@abcnews4.com
MANNING, S.C. (WCIV) – The memory of her son's murder came flooding back when Diane DiLorenzo heard of the prison riot at Lieber Correctional Institution last Wednesday.
"I just had almost chills," DiLorenzo said.
In 2006, DiLorenzo's son, James Belli, Jr., 19, was an inmate at Lieber serving an 8-year prison sentence for a burglary conviction.
"He was getting ready to go to bed and an inmate went into his cell and beat him with a lock in the sock over the head. And, he was left in his cell. Apparently, the beating was severe enough that his blood got on the cell walls," DiLorenzo said.
Belli was often bullied and threatened. DiLorenzo says inmates called Belli's quiet demeanor an "easy pry."
Once Belli grew tired of the mistreatment and threatened to tell authorities. That's when things turned deadly.
"The next day he woke up to go to breakfast. And, when he was walking to breakfast, he was grabbed by one inmate and he was stabbed by another one in his neck," DiLorenzo said. "You know, it's not good when you get a call from the chaplain. I just remember my heart beating really fast because I was driving home from work."
Belli died at a nearby hospital later that day. DiLorenzo says her son's death was preventable.
"They were understaffed. They couldn't help him," DiLorenzo said.
At the time of Belli's attack, only two officers were on duty in his dorm of over 200 inmates.
"If they had the staffing that they were supposed to have and they followed prison protocol, they would have seen that James was beat and he would have been removed from the situation," DiLorenzo said.
Not much has changed since 2006. Only two guards were on duty the night of the prison riot last Wednesday. The South Carolina Department of Corrections says budget constraints are to blame.
"(I'm) Just shocked that nothing has been done since my son's death. That budget cuts continue to haunt the prisons. There are other ways to cut budgets," DiLorenzo said.
Now, almost six years later, DiLorenzo is still on the push for prison reform – in fear that her greatest fear may become reality for another mother.
"When you're talking about such a maximum security prison with such violent criminals there needs to be increased staffing," DiLorenzo said. "…Because it could have been a guard that died. It could have been another inmate that died."
DiLorenzo says she hopes her story will change the way the state's prison system is managed.
"The people at Lieber can only do what they can do when you have two guards and you don't have equipment that works right and you're underpaid," DiLorenzo said.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections is one of the largest state agencies with 5,800 employees and over 22,000 inmates.
Clark Newsom, communications director for the SCDC, says in addition to budget cuts, the agency has difficulty recruiting correctional officers for what he called, "dangerous and very stressful jobs at times for relatively low pay."
Diane DiLorenzo holds photos of her son, James Belli, Jr. (Valencia Wicker/WCIV)
