Current Status Bill Number:3269 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:House Introduced Date:19970121 Primary Sponsor:Harrison All Sponsors:Harrison and Jennings Drafted Document Number:egm\18539ac.97 Residing Body:House Current Committee:Judiciary Committee 25 HJ Subject:Juveniles, detention hearing, commitment, transfers; Minors, Juvenile Justice Department
Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved
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House 19970121 Introduced, read first time, 25 HJ
referred to Committee
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TO AMEND SECTIONS 20-7-6845, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO INSTITUTIONAL SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE, 20-7-7215, RELATING TO DETENTION HEARINGS, AND 20-7-7810, RELATING TO COMMITMENT OF JUVENILES TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE, ALL SO AS TO MAKE TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS BY DELETING PROVISIONS INADVERTENTLY INCLUDED PERTAINING TO RESPONSIBILITIES OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN WHICH DETENTION CENTERS ARE LOCATED, BY REINSTATING TEXT REQUIRING AN INTERVIEW OF A JUVENILE WITHIN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AFTER A DETENTION HEARING, BY CLARIFYING THAT CHILDREN UNDER TWELVE ONLY MUST BE COMMITTED TO THE CUSTODY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE, BY DELETING DUPLICATIVE PROVISIONS AND CLARIFYING THAT CERTAIN TRANSFERS OF JUVENILES TO THE YOUTHFUL OFFENDER DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS PERTAIN TO NONVIOLENT OFFENDERS; TO DELETE DUPLICATIVE PROVISIONS BY REPEALING SECTION 20-7-753 RELATING TO FAMILY ASSESSMENTS IN JUVENILE CASES, SECTION 20-7-1331 RELATING TO THE YOUTH MENTOR PROGRAM, AND SECTION 20-7-1335 RELATING TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JUVENILE RECORDS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 20-7-6845(5) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 383 of 1996, is amended to read:
"(5) Each secure facility which detains preadjudicatory youth longer than forty-eight hours, excluding weekends and state holidays, regardless of ownership or management, must have sufficient personnel to provide uninterrupted supervision and to provide administrative, program, and support requirements. Each of these facilities must have a minimum of two juvenile custodial officers on duty each shift, fully dressed, awake, and alert to operate the facility. At least one person shall directly supervise the juveniles at all times. At least one female juvenile custodial officer must be present and available to the female detention population at all times. Staff on duty must be sufficient to provide for a juvenile-staff ratio of no more than a maximum of eight juveniles to each custody staff person, excluding administrative, program, and other support staff. Staff shall prepare further a facility schedule of preplanned, structured, and productive activities. Schedules must be developed which include designated times for sleeping, dining, education, counseling, recreation, visitation, and personal time. Daily schedules should minimize idleness and promote constructive use of the juvenile's day. The Department of Juvenile Justice shall provide educational programs and services to all preadjudicatory juveniles in its custody. County and regionally operated facilities shall provide these services to all preadjudicatory juveniles who are detained locally for more than forty-eight hours, excluding weekends and state holidays, by contracting with the Department of Juvenile Justice or by arranging the services through the local school district in which the facility is located. It shall be the responsibility of the school district where a local detention center which has been approved to detain juveniles is located to provide adequate teaching staff and to ensure compliance with the educational requirements of this State. Students housed in approved local detention centers are to be included in the average daily membership count of students for that district and reimbursement by the Department of Education shall be made accordingly. Services which are arranged locally must be approved by the Department of Juvenile Justice as meeting all criteria developed under the authority of Section 20-7-6855."
SECTION 2. Section 20-7-7215(B) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 383 of 1996, is amended to read:
"(B) A juvenile ordered detained in a facility must be screened interviewed within twenty-four hours after the detention hearing by a social worker or if considered appropriate by a psychologist in order to determine whether the juvenile is emotionally disturbed, mentally ill, or otherwise in need of services. The services must be provided immediately."
SECTION 3. Section 20-7-7810 of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 383 of 1996, is amended to read:
"Section 20-7-7810. (A) A child, after the child's twelfth birthday and before the seventeenth birthday or while under the jurisdiction of the family court for disposition of an offense that occurred prior to the child's seventeenth birthday, may be committed to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice which shall arrange for placement in a suitable corrective environment. Children under the age of twelve years may must be committed only to the custody of the department which shall arrange for placement in a suitable corrective environment other than institutional confinement. No child under the age of seventeen years may be committed or sentenced to any other penal or correctional institution of this State.
(B) All commitments to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice for delinquency as opposed to the conviction of a specific crime may be made only for the reasons and in the manner prescribed in Sections 20-7-400, 20-7-410, 20-7-7605, 20-7-460, 20-7-750, 20-7-760, 20-7-1340, 20-7-1520, and this article, with evaluations made and proceedings conducted only by the judges authorized to order commitments in this section.
(C) The court, before committing a child as a delinquent or as a part of a sentence including commitments for contempt, first temporarily shall commit the child to the Department of Juvenile Justice for a period not to exceed forty-five days for evaluation, and the department shall make a recommendation to the court before final commitment. The committing judge may waive in writing temporary commitment in cases where the child concerned has within the past year either been evaluated by a center and the evaluation is available to the court or has within the past year been temporarily or finally discharged or conditionally released or paroled from a correctional institution of the Department of Juvenile Justice, and the child's previous evaluation or other equivalent information is available to the court.
(D) When a child is adjudicated delinquent or convicted of a crime or has entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere in a court authorized to commit to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice, the child may be committed for an indeterminate period until the child has reached age twenty-one or until sooner released by the Board of Juvenile Parole under its discretional powers or released by order of a judge of the Supreme Court or the circuit court of this State, rendered at chambers or otherwise, in a proceeding in the nature of an application for a writ of habeas corpus. A juvenile who has not been paroled or otherwise released from the custody of the department by the juvenile's nineteenth birthday must be transferred to the custody and authority of the Youthful Offender Division of the Department of Corrections. If not sooner released by the Department of Corrections, the juvenile must be released by age twenty-one according to the provisions of the child's commitment; however, notwithstanding the above provision, any juvenile committed as an adult offender by order of the court of general sessions must be considered for parole or other release according to the laws pertaining to release of adult offenders.
(E) A juvenile committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice following an adjudication for a violent offense contained in Section 16-1-60 or for the offense of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, who has not been paroled or released from the custody of the department by his seventeenth birthday must be transferred to the custody and authority of the Youthful Offender Division of the Department of Corrections. A juvenile committed to the department following adjudication for any other offense who has not been paroled or released from the custody of the department by his nineteenth birthday must be transferred to the custody and authority of the Youthful Offender Division of the Department of Corrections at age nineteen. If not released sooner by the Department of Corrections, a transferred juvenile must be released by his twenty-first birthday according to the provisions of his commitment. Notwithstanding the above provision, a juvenile committed as an adult offender by order of the court of general sessions shall be considered for parole or other release according to the laws pertaining to release of adult offenders.
(F)(E) Notwithstanding Section 20-7-2170 subsections (A) through (D), a child who is guilty of a violation of law or other misconduct which would not be a criminal offense if committed by an adult, a child who has been found in contempt of court for violation of a court order related to a violation of law or other misconduct which would not be a criminal offense if committed by an adult, or a child who violates the conditions of probation for a violation of law or other misconduct which would not be a criminal offense if committed by an adult may be committed to the custody of a correctional institution operated by the Department of Juvenile Justice or to secure evaluation centers operated by the department for a determinate period not to exceed ninety days; however, a child committed under this section may not be confined with a child who has been determined by the department to be violent."
SECTION 4. Sections 20-7-753, 20-7-1331, and 20-7-1335 of the 1976 Code are repealed.
SECTION 5. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.