Susan Smith isn’t ready for parole: Ex-lover, prison guard

( NewsNation ) — An ex-prison guard, with whom Susan Smith had an affair while in jail, said he doesn’t think his former lover should be allowed parole yet.

Smith, who drowned her two sons in a lake in 1994, is currently up for parole.

“Her prison record shows that she’s not really learned anything,” other than “how to do illegal drugs,” Alfred Rowe said exclusively on “ Banfield .” Rowe said he believes everyone deserves a second chance, including Smith, but “she’s got a lot of cleaning up to do” first.

In 2001, Rowe pleaded guilty to having sex with Smith. He received five years probation and was fired from his job after working for the South Carolina Department of Corrections for about 13 years.

Rowe said he couldn’t answer exactly why he had an affair with Smith.

“I don’t know how I allowed it to happen,” Rowe said on “Banfield.” “I guess being young. Never being around that many women before. And then basically being locked up, just like they were, for 12 hours a day. I just fell into her sweet talk and manipulation.”

Rowe said he suspects that if Smith is released, within a year she’ll be “back behind bars for violating (the) no drugs or alcohol” restriction that would surely be part of her release agreement.

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