Smiling Alex Murdaugh appears shaven-headed in new prison mugshot trends now

Smiling Alex Murdaugh has appeared shaven-headed in a new mugshot from prison days after being found guilty of murdering his wife and son.

The new mugshot was to replace an out of focus photo that was taken on March 3 when he was transferred to the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center.

The 54-year-old wears a white t-shirt under his yellow prison overalls in the most recent image taken inside the notorious lock-up outside Columbia, South Carolina.

He is being held in a cell on his own as he undergoes 45 days of testing which the South Carolina Department of Corrections carries out on every prisoner to assess where to hold them permanently. As he is a double murderer, Murdaugh is being housed with the state's most brutal and violent inmates.

Murdaugh was last week sentenced to two consecutive life sentences after he was found guilty of shooting dead his wife Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, at the family's hunting estate in Moselle on the night of June 7, 2021.

Smiling Alex Murdaugh appears shaven-headed in a new mugshot from prison days after being found guilty of murdering his wife and son. The new mugshot was to replace an out of focus photo that was taken on March 3 (right) when he was transferred to the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center

Kirkland Correctional Center will be Murdaugh's grim new home for the next few weeks as he undergoes evaluation for where to be sent permanently

This undated file photo provided on July 11, 2019, by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the new death row at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, SC

Alex Murdaugh with wife Maggie and their sons Buster (left) and Paul (right)

The life he now faces is a far cry from the privileged world of multi-million dollar homes from the coast to the hunting lands of the Lowcountry he is used to.

'As part of the intake process, like all inmates, (Murdaugh) will undergo medical tests, mental health and education assessments, and the South Carolina Department of Corrections will gather other additional background information,' the South Carolina Department of Corrections said in a statement last week.

After the evaluation, Murdaugh will be sent to one of the state's maximum-security prisons to serve out the rest of his life behind bars.

Kirkland is home to more than 1,700 of the most violent criminals in the state and churns through more than 8,000 prisoners each year for evaluation.

As well as serving as the processing site for all of the state's convicts, it is also home to a specialized maximum-security jail for the most dangerous and violent offenders.

Adjacent to the prison is the Broad River Correctional Institution which houses both high and medium security inmates.

More than 700 prisoners died in South Carolina's prisons and jails between 2015 and 2021. The majority of those deaths occurred at Kirkland (160) and Broad River (101).

'Kirkland is also responsible for the maximum-security unit which houses some of the most violent and dangerous inmates in the state,' the site's website says.

'Furthermore, Kirkland Correctional Center houses inmates who are in the statewide protective custody program.'

Trial attorney Robert Rikard tweeted on the eve of Murdaugh's sentencing: 'Tomorrow will be a much different day for Murdaugh. After sentencing instead of going to the county jail he will go to Reception and Evaluation on Broad River Rd.

'They'll shave his head and put him through a battery of tests that vet weeks.

'Then he will be assigned to a SC Department of Corrections facility. Because he's convicted of a violent crime, he will go to a facility that only houses the violent criminals. The worst of the worst.

'It will be a much different scene than the county jail. These are brutal environments and it will be quite a shock after the privileged life he has lived.'