For the second time in five months, a prisoner in the Oconee County Detention Facility has been badly beaten. The first incident was in May, and the second took place this past week.

The only thing more alarming than the fact that this keeps happening is that no one who should care seems to, or at least not enough to see that it stops.

There is a presumption of innocence in this country. As gratifying as it may feel on the surface to have a suspected child molester or wife killer beaten to a pulp by other inmates, it’s not what we do. It isn’t civilized. It demeans us as Americans, to say nothing of our very public claims to be unwavering Christians. If we really are, we should be screaming for a humanitarian response.

To treat it as acceptable behavior is grotesque. To think of it as funny is perverted. To be a responsible party and do nothing is asking for a lawsuit. If we can’t find a humanitarian reason to care, we should at least give a damn because, if this doesn’t stop now, it’s going to cost all of us a bundle of tax dollars.

The buck on this one stops with County Council, primarily past councils, but also present. The folks who oversee county government have for years been knowingly doing as little as possible to rectify overcrowding and security issues at the detention center. It is bad enough they built spacious offices when they should have put up needed jail cells. But, since doing so they have been playing games with the state, half-heartedly taking up overcrowding when word filters down from Columbia that South Carolina’s government might be ready to force the issue.

So far, the state has been absent without leave and the county has been a willing accomplice.

As much as the folks at the detention center and Sheriff James Singleton would like to pass this off on the council, that would be too easy. By statute, Singleton is the keeper of the jail. If he can’t guarantee the safety of the men and women assigned to his care, he should force the issue by spending whatever it costs to see that it happens. Maybe, sooner or later, as the bills mount, County Council will quit looking the other way and solve this problem.

No one wants to spend more money on housing lawbreakers, but that’s part of the job. You can spend it now or you can spend more later. Accepting brutality while we weigh our options should be beneath all of us.