COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - Ellis MacDougall, South Carolina's first prisons director and inventor of the curved security fence, died Saturday morning at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital. He was 75. <br>
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MacDougall had been hospitalized for about a month with several illnesses, including cancer and pneumonia. <br>
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He was the first professional director of South Carolina's Corrections Department, taking over the agency in 1962. <br>
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He went on to head the Connecticut Corrections Department from 1968 to 1971; was commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections and Offender Rehabilitation, 1971-1974; and was the organizing commissioner for the Mississippi Corrections Department in 1976. <br>
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In 1987, after stints as a professor at the University of South Carolina and head of the Arizona Corrections Department, MacDougall received a patent for a curved fence design that is used in prisons in 36 states and three other countries, according to the Web site for First DeFence International Security Co. <br>
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The key to the fence is its posts that curve inward over the inmates' heads. An inmate would be unable to use his feet to help him climb the fence. <br>
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MacDougall also made an unsuccessful run for Columbia City Council in 1994 and more recently has offered his expertise to panels looking at ways to improve the state's prison system. <br>
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Born in New York City, MacDougall is survived by his wife, Rachel Ann Ghiotto MacDougall, three sons and two daughters.
