An employee of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, or the Department of Mental Health whose assigned work location is one of the correctional facilities of the Department of Corrections or the Department of Juvenile Justice, while performing his officially assigned duty relating to the custody, control, transportation, or recapture of an inmate within the jurisdiction of his department, or an inmate of any jail, penitentiary, prison, public work, chain gang, or overnight lockup of the State or any political subdivision of it not within the jurisdiction of his department, has the status of a peace officer anywhere in the State in any matter relating to the custody, control, transportation, or recapture of the inmate.
S.C. Code § 24-1-280