H 3269 Session 112 (1997-1998)
H 3269 General Bill, By Harrison and Jennings
A BILL 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.
01/21/97 House Introduced and read first time HJ-13
01/21/97 House Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-13
A BILL
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.
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