Current Status Bill Number:3965 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:House Introduced Date:19970410 Primary Sponsor:D. Smith All Sponsors:D. Smith Drafted Document Number:dka\4226cm.97 Residing Body:House Current Committee:Judiciary Committee 25 HJ Subject:Community supervision system, Probation, Parole and Pardon; Prisons and Prisoners, rehabilitative services
Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved
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House 19970410 Introduced, read first time, 25 HJ
referred to Committee
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TO AMEND CHAPTER 21, TITLE 24, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO PROBATION, PAROLE, AND PARDON, BY ADDING ARTICLE 12 SO AS TO PROVIDE A SYSTEM OF COMMUNITY SUPERVISION; TO AMEND SECTION 24-3-40, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE DISPOSITION OF THE WAGES OF CERTAIN PRISONERS, SO AS TO REVISE THE DISPOSITION OF WAGES BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; TO AMEND SECTION 24-13-1910, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT, CONSTRUCTION, OPERATION, AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CENTERS FOR ALCOHOL AND DRUG REHABILITATION, SO AS TO DELETE A PROVISION THAT ALLOWS THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS TO CONSTRUCT ONE OR MORE CENTERS UPON THE NECESSARY APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY; TO AMEND CHAPTER 3, TITLE 24, RELATING TO THE STATE PRISON SYSTEM BY ADDING ARTICLE 4, SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR RESEARCH INTO AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAMS TO IMPROVE REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, REDUCE RECIDIVISIM RATES, AND PREPARE INMATES FOR RELEASE; AND BY ADDING SECTION 24-12-310 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF PROBATION, PAROLE, AND PARDON SERVICES SHALL EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF "CRIMINAL THINKING" COUNSELING.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Chapter 21, Title 24 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 24-21-1050. (A) As used in this article:
(1) Limited probation supervision (LPS) is a level of supervision that holds an offender accountable for making restitution to victims who have been harmed in the commission of a criminal act. The offenders placed in this level of supervision must be nonviolent offenders with minimal or no prior criminal history.
(2) General probation supervision (GPS) is a level of supervision that monitors the majority of offenders supervised in the community. Offenders placed in this level of supervision must be monitored to ensure compliance with all court ordered sentences and conditions, to hold offenders accountable in making restitution to victims who have been harmed in the commission of a criminal act, and to ensure that these offenders participate in activities that will reduce the likelihood of recidivism.
(3) Intensive probation supervision (IPS) is a level of supervision that monitors offenders who require aggressive community-based supervision because of their extensive criminal history or the risk they may pose to the community. Offenders placed in this level of supervision must be monitored to ensure compliance with all court ordered sentences and conditions, held accountable in making restitution to victims who have been harmed in the commission of a criminal act, and to ensure that these offenders participate in activities that will reduce the likelihood of recidivism.
(4) Community supervision (CS) is a level of supervision that monitors the activities of offenders who have been released from institutional supervision. Offenders placed in this level of supervision must be monitored to ensure compliance with court or parole board ordered conditions of release, effectively reintegrated into the community, and held accountable in making restitution to victims who have been harmed in the commission of a criminal act.
(5) Institutional supervision (IS) is a level of supervision for offenders who are not appropriate for supervision in the community.
(B) Nothing in this article shall preclude the department from having caseloads that combine the different levels of supervision as long as an appropriate rating system is developed that guarantees that the quality of supervision is not diminished.
Section 24-21-1100. (A) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services must be provided sufficient resources by the General Assembly to provide that the caseloads for LPS agents do not exceed a supervision ratio of one hundred forty offenders a probation agent. Probation agents assigned to LPS caseloads must be provided sufficient administrative and clerical support.
(B) The general sessions court may sentence offenders to LPS terms of not less than six months and not more than eighteen months. The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services administratively may reduce the terms of LPS offenders by a maximum of six months if all restitution and other financial obligations have been paid by the offenders and if no criminal violations have occurred during the LPS sentence.
(C) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services hearing officers may extend the terms of LPS offenders by up to six months if the offenders violate financial court ordered sentence conditions. The offender is not responsible for his community reparation and offender supervision and rehabilitation fees during this extension.
(D) The general sessions court may extend the terms of LPS offenders by up to twelve months if financial obligations have not been paid by the end of the original term or if technical or criminal violations have occurred. The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services may retain extended term offenders in a regular LPS caseload, transfer them to a residential restitution center, or seek civil actions.
(E) The general sessions court may resentence LPS technical violators to the GPS or IPS levels of correctional programming. Criminal violators of supervision may be sentenced to GPS, IPS, or IS.
Section 24-21-1150. (A) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services must be provided sufficient resources by the General Assembly to provide that the caseloads for GPS agents do not exceed a supervision ratio of seventy offenders an agent for first-year GPS offenders and a supervision ratio of one hundred forty offenders an agent for second and subsequent year GPS offenders. Probation agents assigned to GPS caseloads must be provided with sufficient administrative and clerical support to effectively perform their duties.
(B) The general sessions court may sentence offenders to GPS terms of not less than twelve months nor more than thirty-six months. The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services administratively may reduce the terms of GPS offenders by not more than six months if all restitution and other financial obligations have been paid and if no criminal violations have occurred.
(C) An offender sentenced to GPS must:
(1) report to his agent once a month;
(2) be contacted by his agent once each quarter; and
(3) undergo a test for alcohol and illicit drug abuse twice a year.
(D) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services Hearing Officers may extend the terms of GPS offenders by up to six months if the offenders violate financial court ordered sentence conditions. The offender is not responsible for his community reparation and offender supervision and rehabilitation fees during this extension.
(E) The general sessions court may extend the terms of GPS offenders by up to twelve months if financial obligations have not been paid by the end of the original term or if technical or criminal violations occur. The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services may retain extended term offenders in a regular GPS caseload, transfer them to a residential restitution center, or seek civil actions.
(F) The general sessions court may resentence GPS technical violators to the IPS level of correctional programming or revoke their probation and place them in IS.
Section 24-21-1200. (A) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services must be provided sufficient resources by the General Assembly to provide that the caseloads for IPS agents do not exceed a supervision ratio of thirty-five offenders an agent for IPS offenders in their first twelve months of supervision and a supervision ratio of seventy offenders an agent for IPS offenders in their second or subsequent years of supervision, or both. Probation agents assigned to IPS caseloads must be provided with sufficient administrative and clerical support to effectively perform their duties.
(B) The general sessions court may sentence offenders to IPS terms of not less than twenty-four months nor more than forty-eight months. The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services may reduce the terms of IPS offenders by not more than six months if all restitution and other financial obligations have been paid by the offenders and if no criminal violations have occurred.
(C) An offender sentenced to IPS must:
(1) report to his agent on a weekly basis;
(2) be contacted by his agent who will make out-of-office contacts once each quarter; and
(3) be alcohol or drug-tested once each quarter, or both.
(D) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services hearing officers may extend the terms of IPS offenders by not more than six months if the offenders violate financial court ordered sentence conditions. The offender is not responsible for his community reparation and offender supervision and rehabilitation fees during this extension.
(E) The general sessions court may extend the terms of IPS offenders by not more than twelve months if financial obligations have not been paid by the end of the original term or if technical or criminal violations occur. The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services may retain extended term offenders in a regular IPS caseload, transfer them to a residential restitution center or seek civil actions.
(F) The general sessions court may require offenders sentenced to IPS to participate in not more than six months of specialized punishment and treatment programming when the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services certifies to the court that this programming is available. The department may contract these services if necessary. Offenders must be assessed a daily fee to offset the cost of the services provided. These fees may be collected after an inmate's release from the specialized program, if the inmate is unable to work while in the program. The inventory of specialized programming and service fees are:
(1) one dollar a day for house arrest or curfews;
(2) two dollars a day for placement in a mental health facility;
(3) three dollars a day for placement in a halfway house; and
(4) three dollars a day for placement in community control center.
These fees must be reviewed every five years.
(G) The general sessions court may require IPS technical violators to participate in one or more punishment or treatment enhancement programs or revoke their probation and place them in IS.
Section 24-21-1250. (A) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services must be provided sufficient resources by the General Assembly to provide that violent offenders (offenders sentenced to twenty years or more as outlined in the 1995 Crime Bill) transferred to CS from IS will be placed in IPS caseloads for not less than one year but not more than two years.
(B) A person placed on parole must be placed at an appropriate level of supervision comparable to IPS, GPS, or LPS by the state parole board.
Section 24-21-1300. The Department of Corrections may review the Department of Juvenile Justice juvenile offender records to make security and classification decisions for IS Offenders.
Section 24-21-1350. The Director of the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services shall notify the Governor, the Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives, the President of the South Carolina Senate, and the general public whenever the statewide average caseload for LPS, CPS, IPS, or CS exceeds the guidelines established in this plan.
Section 24-21-1400. (A) Offenders sentenced to LPS, GPS, IPS, and CS shall pay an 'offender supervision and rehabilitation fee' of thirty dollars a month.
(B) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services shall deposit fifty percent of the proceeds from the 'offender supervision and rehabilitation fee' paid by LPS, GPS, IPS, and CS offenders in an 'Offender Rehabilitation Fund' controlled by the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services. The department shall deposit the remaining fifty percent in the state's general fund.
(C) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services shall use thirty percent of the funds deposited in the offender rehabilitation fund each year to purchase rehabilitation services from private service providers for GPS offenders, thirty percent of the funds to purchase services for IPS offenders. The remaining forty percent of the funds must be used by the department for the development and operation of IPS enhancement programs. The money generated for each level of supervision must be divided statewide between each supervising agent, who will have the discretion to direct the expenditure of these resources among his caseload.
(D) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services may use the first six thousand dollars of the funds deposited in the offender rehabilitation fund each year for salary bonuses for six probation agents who excel in the reduction of recidivism in their caseloads.
Section 24-21-1450. (A) The General Assembly shall provide sufficient resources to the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services for the department to employ three additional sex offense probation agents in the more populated areas of the State. These agents must be assigned to IPS level caseloads that are exclusively devoted to sex offenders. The two current sex offender caseloads must be upgraded to intensive supervision.
(B) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services shall develop a training curriculum for teaching volunteers to serve as mentors to GPS, IPS, and CS.
(C) The General Assembly shall provide the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services sufficient resources to provide or contract with private service providers for a minimum of two halfway house beds for every one thousand offenders supervised by the department. The support services provided to the offenders supervised in the halfway house must include:
(1) case management services and referrals;
(2) vocational assistance; and
(3) random twenty-four hour verification of an offender's location.
Section 24-21-1500. (A) The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services hearing officers must provide findings of fact and conclusions of law at the conclusion of all hearings sufficient for additional adjudication on any case in which incarceration is among a hearing officer's recommendation at the time of adjudication.
(B) During an administrative hearing, probation and parole officers shall provide recommendations to the hearing officer. These recommendations must remain confidential between the probation and parole officers and the hearing officer unless the hearing officer finds a compelling reason to furnish this information to another party."
SECTION 2. Section 24-3-40 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 7 of 1995, is further amended to read:
"Section 24-3-40. (A) Unless otherwise provided by law, the employer of a prisoner authorized to work at paid employment in the community under Sections 24-3-20 through 24-3-50 or in a prison industry program provided under Article 3 of this chapter shall pay the prisoner's wages directly to the Department of Corrections. The director of the Department of Corrections shall withhold five percent of the gross wages and promptly place these funds on deposit with the State Treasurer for credit to a special account to support victim assistance programs established pursuant to the 'Victims of Crime Act of 1984, Public Law 98-473, Title II, Chapter XIV, Section 1404'. The director may withhold from the wages costs incident to the prisoner's confinement as the Department of Corrections considers appropriate and reasonable. These withholdings must be deposited to the maintenance account of the Department of Corrections. The balance of the wages, in the discretion of the director and in proportions determined by the director, may be disbursed to the prisoner, the prisoner's dependents, and the victim of the crime or deposited to the credit of the prisoner.
(B) An employer of a prisoner authorized to work at paid employment in a private prison industry program provided under Article 3 of this chapter shall pay the prisoner's wages to the Department of Corrections.
(C) The wages must be disbursed as follows:
(1) fifty percent must be applied toward restitution payments;
(2) five percent must be deposited with the State Treasurer for credit to a special account to support victim assistance programs established pursuant to the 'Victims of Crime Act of 1984, Public Law 98-473, Title II, Chapter XIV, Section 1404';
(3) once restitution is paid fully, the Department of Corrections may apply up to thirty-five percent of a prisoner's wages toward court ordered child support payments;
(4) twenty-five percent must be used by the Department of Corrections to defray the cost of the prisoner's room and board;
(5) ten percent may be used by the inmate during his incarceration to purchase incidentals;
(6) ten percent must be held in escrow account; and
(7) if restitution or child support, or both, do not apply to the prisoner, the balance of his wages must be placed in an escrow account.
(D) The Department of Corrections shall return a prisoner's wages held in escrow as follows:
(1) a prisoner released without community supervision must be given escrowed wages upon his release;
(2) a prisoner serving life in prison shall have his escrowed wages dispersed to his decedents upon his death;
(3) a prisoner released to community supervision shall receive one hundred dollars or the escrow balance, whichever is less, upon his release. Any balance must be dispensed to the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services. The prisoner's supervising agent shall apply this balance toward payment of the prisoner's housing and basic needs and return any balance to the prisoner at the end of the supervision period."
SECTION 3. Section 24-13-1910 of the 1976 Code, as added by Section 45, Part II, Act 7 of 1995, is amended to read:
"Section 23-13-1910. There is established one or more centers for alcohol and drug rehabilitation under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections to treat and rehabilitate alcohol and drug offenders. The Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services has primary responsibility for the addictions treatment of the offenders, and the Department of Corrections has primary responsibility for the maintenance and security of the offenders. The Department of Corrections may construct one or more centers upon the necessary appropriation of funds by the General Assembly. The Department of Corrections shall centers established establish or constructed construct as authorized by this section shall provide at least seven hundred fifty beds forty-two beds for every three thousand inmates supervised by the Department of Corrections. The centers established under this section must be fully operational by January 1, 1997 1999."
SECTION 4. Chapter 3, Title 24 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 24-3-450. (A) The Department of Corrections, the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services, the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, and the Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services and service providers in the private sector shall form an interagency study group to examine:
(1) a comprehensive plan to assess and provide rehabilitative services to offenders;
(2) the costs of the State providing these rehabilitative services to offenders versus utilization of private sector providers;
(3) methods for improving the information flow and coordination of services; and
(4) how technology can be utilized to decrease costs of these activities.
(B) The study group shall forward their plan and recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly by July 1, 1999.
(C) The Department of Corrections and the Department of Mental Health jointly shall initiate and complete a 'Master Plan for Providing Mental Health Services to Institutional Supervision Offenders' by July 1, 1999.
Section 24-3-455. The Department of Corrections and the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services shall develop a uniform statewide definition and tracking method of recidivism for offenders supervised by both departments.
Section 24-3-460. The Department of Corrections shall develop a plan outlining a preparation for release program, to include the following:
(1) tax incentives to businesses that hire newly released community supervision honorably discharged offenders who have successfully completed the pre-release program described in item (3) of this section;
(2) criteria for an 'honorable discharge' from prison for offenders who have performed well during their incarceration and have participated and successfully completed the Preparation for Release Program mentioned in item 3 of this section. These honorably discharged offenders are eligible for employment opportunities with businesses participating in the tax incentive program mentioned in item (1) of this section; and
(3) a voluntary Preparation for Release Program for all inmates in the custody of the Department of Corrections who have been sentenced to terms of one year or more and who are within at least six months of their release to community supervision. The preparation for release program shall include classes on citizenship and the law, criminal thinking treatment, moral development, basic life and family skills. In addition, access must be provided to vocational and substance abuse counseling."
SECTION 5. The 1976 Code is amended by adding:
"Section 24-21-310. The Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services shall evaluate the effectiveness of 'Criminal Thinking' counseling. If the results are positive, the program must be implemented in facilities operated by the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services and made available to the Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice."
SECTION 6. This act takes effect one year after approval by the Governor.