South Carolina General Assembly
108th Session, 1989-1990

Bill 1080


                    Current Status

Bill Number:               1080
Ratification Number:       698
Act Number                 569
Introducing Body:          Senate
Subject:                   Prison inmate labor
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(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A569, R698, S1080)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 24-3-130, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE USE OF CONVICT LABOR ON STATE HIGHWAYS AND OTHER PUBLIC PROJECTS, SO AS TO ALLOW CERTAIN PRISON INMATES TO BE EMPLOYED AS LABOR ON STATE AGENCY, COUNTY, MUNICIPAL, OR PUBLIC SERVICE DISTRICT PROJECTS MAKING BENEFICIAL PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS, TO PROVIDE FOR THEIR SUPERVISION AND CONTROL, TO PROVIDE THAT PERSONS CONVICTED OF CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONDUCT OR VIOLENT CRIMES WHILE ON A WORK RELEASE PROGRAM MAY NOT BE SO EMPLOYED.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Prison inmate labor

SECTION 1. Section 24-3-130 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

"Section 24-3-130. (A) The State Board of Corrections may permit the use of prison inmate labor on state highway projects or other public projects that may be practical and consistent with safeguarding of the inmates employed on the projects and the public. The Department of Highways and Public Transportation, another state agency, or a county, municipality or public service district making a beneficial public improvement may apply to the board for the use of inmate labor on the highway project or other public improvement or development project. If the board determines the labor may be performed with safety and the project is beneficial to the public it may assign inmates to labor on the highway project or other public purpose project. The inmate labor force must be supervised and controlled by officers designated by the board but the direction of the work performed on the highway or other public improvement project must be under the control and supervision of the person designated by the agency, county, municipality, or public service district responsible for the work. No person convicted of criminal sexual conduct in the first, second, or third degree or a person who commits a violent crime while on a work release program may be assigned to perform labor on a project described by this section.

(B) The authorities involved may enter into contracts to implement the provisions of this section.

(C) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, inmates constructing work camps on county property must be supervised and controlled by armed officers and must be drawn exclusively from minimum security facilities. A work camp constructed or operated by the Department of Corrections must house only offenders classified as nonviolent. The contracting officials for the county utilizing prison inmate labor must be provided by the Department of Corrections with the most recent information concerning the composition of all work crews including the respective offenses for which the inmates have been sentenced and their custody levels."

Time effective

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

Approved the 11th day of June, 1990.