Year for supervisor who ordered guards to hog-tie juveniles

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COLUMBIA (AP) A former supervisor at a South Carolina juvenile prison has been sentenced to a year in prison for ordering guards to hog-tie two inmates because they made too much noise.

Court records show 36-year-old Nicole Jenice Samples was sentenced in federal court Aug. 1. She pleaded guilty to two counts of deprivation of civil rights last year and had faced up to two decades in prison.

Prosecutors say Samples was working at the Department of Juvenile Justice’s main prison in Columbia last year when inmates began making noise. As punishment, officials say she ordered two subordinates to tie the inmates’ arms to their legs and leave them on their stomachs for two hours, causing them severe pain.

A surveillance camera captured the hog-tying, which is specifically banned under agency policy.