The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 17

TV I SECTION TA 2hereenpi(leNeus greenvilleonline.com Wednesday November 29, 2006 Obituaries 6B 8B jail holds hope of safer conditions Violence caused by overcrowding will be relieved by new facility, officials say year, compared to 22 times last year and nine the year before. Jail administrator Scotty Bodiford said "severe overcrowding" can force more than 150 inmates into units designed for 80, but he sought to show that jail policy lines up with other counties, that staff training exceeds state requirements and that he's always looking for improvements. He told The Greenville News that an upgrade in jail doors came in response to the February incident. He declined to discuss it in detail because of pending prosecution. So far this year, the jail has paid $12,539 for seven metal doors to replace wood ones in its medical isolation unit, $2,221 for 17 Glock handguns and $1,065 for electric stun devices, according to figures released Tuesday.

Committee members Joe Dill, Bob Taylor and Cort Flint offered little but praise in a 90-minute meeting that was cut short when Taylor and Flint had to leave. No action was taken. A videotaped beating of a female jail guard by an inmate earlier this year was broadcast after Councilman Tony Trout said he requested the tape from a county official and put the video on his Web site. Thirteenth Circuit Solici tor Bob Ariail has since opened an investigation into the tape's release because he said it's a piece of evidence in a pending criminal case. A spokesman for the solicitor said Tuesday he had yet to receive a report from investigators.

Trout has called for a pepper spray, or "0.C foam," to be issued to guards. Bodiford said in his presentation that few facilities in the state allow guards to carry the spray, and that most operate like Greenville, keeping all intermediate weapons such as spray, batons and stun guns locked up away from inmates. Among the places that allow officers to carry spray are the detention centers in Laurens, Union and Spartanburg counties, though Spartanburg officers are fully commissioned and have more training, Bodiford said. By Ben Szobody Staff Writer bszobodygreenvillenews.com Greenville County public safety officials on Tuesday downplayed the February beating of a detention center guard and said the jail expansion under way will soon relieve tensions that lead to violence. Detention center figures released in a special committee meeting called to study jail safety showed 30 assault incidents this year involving an inmate and a staff member, compared to 27 last year and 41 in 2004.

Detention center staff was examined for potential injury in 12 of the cases this Due West lends ailing teen a hand r-7 CtfftwnuUltNnwsl WYFF mi Hwfrfm Sunshine Fund to aid Rosewood House Z- Staff Reports mm Htm tbSZs (ixx I GEORGE GARDNER Staff Packing up: Andre Richburg loads luggage into his car before the Greenville members of the Emmett Till Commemoration Committee leave for Mississippi on Tuesday. Till case takes Greenville group on trip through past BART 80ATWRIGHT Staff Reaching out: Sixteen-year-old Derell Brownlee stands represents a dollar raised by students at the school to in front of a wall of hands at Cherokee Trail Elementary help Brownlee, a junior at Dixie High, who underwent a School with his parents, Ricky and Dorothy. Each hand liver transplant on Nov. 20. Town opens hearts, wallets to help with liver transplant Delegation to study impact of teen's murder on rights movement I By Scott Keepfer Staff Writer skeepfer greenvillenews.com DUE WEST Derell Brownlee and his family spent the Thanksgiving holidays in a hospital room in Charleston.

Such a setting might not seem much to be thankful for to many people, but for the Brownlees, it may go down as their best Thanksgiving ever. "I believe in prayer," said Ricky Brownlee, Derell's father. "And it has really worked this time. This is amazing." Derell, a 16-year-old junior at Dixie High School, underwent a 5l2-hour liver transplant surgery on Monday, Nov. 20, at the Medical University of South Carolina.

The next morning, when a tube was removed from his throat, his first thought was to ask how Dixie's bas ketball team had fared the night before. By that evening, he was out of intensive care, about four or five days ahead of schedule. On Wednesday, he started his day with grits and bacon. By Friday, he had been released from the hospital, taking up residence in a nearby hotel suite with his family. "He walked around an outlet mall a little bit with us today," Ricky said Tuesday.

"I don't think we'll be here much longer. "I think him being so young and strong has helped, but the doctors are amazed at how well he's doing." So are his many well-wishers back home in Due West, where the quiet and soft-spoken Derell is held in high esteem among his See TEEN on page 4B As an agency that comes to the aid of homeless and very low-income women recovering from substance abuse who need help with heating and fuel costs, the Rosewood House of Recovery hopes to benefit its clients with donations it receives from the Holiday Sunshine Fund. It has heating needs at its two 10-bed transitional houses, and must pay for fuel to transport its clients to and from work. Rosewood not only provides transitional housing, it offers education and treatment programs for women who have been struggling with addictions to alcohol and drugs. "We provide long-term solutions for women who have been struggling with addiction for a number of years," said, Ellen Steven-1 son, Rosewood's resource development coordinator.

The agency is among the groups picked to receive money raised this year by the Holiday Sunshine Fund, sponsored by The Greenville News, GreenvilleOn-line and WYFF 4. This is the 29th year for the Holiday Sunshine Fund, which raises money to help the less fortunate in our community. Since 1978, The Greenville News has sponsored the Holiday Sunshine Fund. The fund received on Tuesday, bringing the total for this year to $1,855. The fund raised approximately $52,429 last year.

Contributors have included: Gregory G. Gibson of Mauldin, $50; M.J. Schotsch of Greer, $50; Vivian W. Styles of Travelers Rest, $20, in memory of Ruth Duncan; Harriett Bosschaart of Greenville, $25; Louise D. Thorning of Greenville, $200; Ray H.

Smith of Greenville, $25; A. Rowland of Pickens, $2. Also, Fielding and Gaily Gallivan of Travelers Rest, $100; Arlene P. Hammond of Greer, $30; Robert A. Davis of Piedmont, $20, in memory of Harold H.

Brown; anonymous, $10; Caryn Key of Greer, $20; anonymous, $40; Chris and Gilda of Piedmont, $100; Robert and Peggy Muller of Simpsonville, $400; Soyna Thompson of Woodruff, $50; Charles and Marjean Fischer of Greer, $60; and Robert Ellis of Simpson- They have been invited there by the commission and the University of Mississippi. The group will visit Greenwood and Money, Miss. In Birmingham, the Greenville group visited the site where four young black girls were killed in a bombing in 1963. Edith Chou of Greenville and five others first took a 90-minute tour of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute across the street from the 16th Avenue Church, which is undergoing a renovation of its exterior. They then toured the church, where someone threw a bomb 40 years ago and killed the girls.

The bombing was one of the incidents, along with the brutal murder of Till, that helped galvanize the frustration that gave rise to the civil rights movement. Till was from Chicago, but was visiting Mississippi when he was tortured, pistol-whipped and killed. America was horrified at the admission of murder. The institute provides 12 galleries of background from the beginnings of Birmingham and virtually all of the high points of the civil rights movement. The Greenville group plans to go through an orientation for much of Wednesday with the Emmett Till Commission.

Jane Robelot reports for duty at WYFF By E. Richard Walton Staff Writer erwaltongreenvillenews.com BIRMINGHAM A group of Greenvillians who are modern-day Freedom Riders visited on Tuesday the 16th Avenue Church in Birmingham on their way to Mississippi, where they will study the impact of Emmett Till's death and how it influenced the civil rights movement. The group is being led by Xanthene Norris and Ruth Ann Butler. Norris is a Greenville County council-woman, and Butler is president-founder of the Greenville Cultural Exchange Center, a black history museum. In 1955, the 14-year-old Till was visiting Money, when he was killed.

Two men were acquitted in a trial. The two men later confessed to the killing in a Look magazine article. The Greenville group is going to Mississippi to decide whether they will help the Emmett Till Memorial Commission raise money to build a memorial to Till and to renovate two structures connected to the killings. MORE ONLINE Watch Jane Robelot Mb talk about her return to Greenville and local broadcasting and see her photos from her reception by the WYFF newsroom by going to: villeonline.com OWEN RILEY JR. Staff Veteran newscaster to contribute stories to local station By Donna Isbell Walker Entertainment Writer dwalker greenvillenews.com Greenville TV journalist Jane Robelot will be back in her hometown news studio in January.

Robelot, a veteran of local newscasts as well as "CBS Morning News," is returning to the Upstate to work as a contributing reporter at WYFF-TV, the station announced Tuesday. "I want to tell some of the more gentle stories," Robelot said, explaining that she wants to focus on human-interest types of features. She expects to produce two per month during most months, expanding to one a week during the ratings-focused months of February, May, July and November. She Good news: TV reporter Jane Robelot is welcomed back to Greenville by WYFF 4 news director Andy Still at the station's newsroom Tuesday afternoon. TRAFFIC ALERT Neely Ferry Road closed Atlanta.

The station and Robelot began discussing a possible return to Greenville two years ago, said WYFF news director Andy Still, adding that the new position will be a good fit for Robelot and for the station. Robelot, her husband, CBS cameraman Mario De Carvalho, and their 8-year-old son, George, moved back to Greenville in August. Her mother, Dorothy, also lives in Greenville. Being back in Greenville and seeing the city's recent growth has been exciting, Robelot said. "I want the people of Greenville to appreciate what they have It's just such a rich place to be." may also work as a fill-in anchor for the station's local newscast.

In recent years, Robelot has worked part-time as an interviewer for the reli-gious-themed TV program "Leading the Way With Michael Youssef," and on the Georgia Public Broadcasting show "Achieving Excellence in Georgia Public Schools." She will keep both positions after beginning her WYFF job in January. While the part-time jobs have been enjoyable, "I still have this itch to be part of a newsroom," Robelot said. A Clemson graduate, Robelot began her journalism career as sports director at Clemson radio station WCCP-AM. She worked at WSPA-TV in Spartanburg and at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia before moving to CBS in New York and then 7 "7 1 Barker 'fBavenport Bo Bridge Neely Ferry Road between Baker and Davenport roads is closed for replacement of a bridge over Rocky Creek. The road is expected to remain closed until the end of the year.

Detours are posted. To report road construction, call Terry Cregar at 298-4438. See FUND on page 4B MITCH McKELL Staff is Ye provide a multi-disciplinary mi approach to lung cancer care. Greenville Hospital System hasgone tobacco free! GREENVILLE HOSPITAL SYSTEM UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER 2.