Current Status Bill Number:3128 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:House Introduced Date:19970114 Primary Sponsor:Simrill All Sponsors:Simrill and Knotts Drafted Document Number:pt\2790ac.97 Residing Body:House Current Committee:Judiciary Committee 25 HJ Subject:Juveniles fourteen and older, confidentiality of certain records removed, minors
Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved
______ ________ _______________________________________ _______ ____________
House 19970114 Introduced, read first time, 25 HJ
referred to Committee
House 19970108 Prefiled, referred to Committee 25 HJ
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TO AMEND SECTION 20-7-8510, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO JUVENILE RECORDS, CONFIDENTIALITY, AND FINGERPRINTING OF JUVENILES, SO AS TO REMOVE THE CONFIDENTIALITY FOR THE NAME, IDENTITY, PICTURE, AND RECORDS OF JUVENILES FOURTEEN YEARS OLD AND OLDER.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 20-7-8510 (A) and (B) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 383 of 1996, is amended to read:
"(A) The court shall make and keep records of all cases brought before it and shall devise and cause to be printed forms for social and legal records and other papers as may be required. The official juvenile records of the courts and the Department of Juvenile Justice on children under fourteen years of age are open to inspection only by consent of the judge to persons having a legitimate interest but always must be available to the legal counsel of the juvenile. Except as provided in subsection (B), all information obtained and social records prepared in the discharge of official duty by an employee of the court or Department of Juvenile Justice on children under fourteen years of age are confidential and must not be disclosed directly or indirectly to anyone, other than the judge or others entitled under this article to receive this information, unless otherwise ordered by the judge. However, these records are open to inspection without the consent of the judge where the records are necessary to defend against an action initiated by a juvenile.
(B) The Department of Juvenile Justice, if requested, shall provide the victim of a crime with the name and other basic descriptive information about the juvenile charged with the crime and with information about the juvenile justice system, the status and disposition of the delinquency action including hearing dates, times, and locations, and services available to victims of juvenile crime. The name, identity, or picture of a child under fourteen years of age under the jurisdiction of the court, pursuant to this chapter, must not be provided to or made public by a newspaper or radio or television station except as authorized by order of the court or unless the juvenile has been bound over to a court which would have trial jurisdiction of the offense if committed by an adult or the juvenile has been adjudicated delinquent in family court for:
(1) a violent crime as defined in Section 16-1-60;
(2) grand larceny of a motor vehicle;
(3) a crime in which a deadly weapon was used; or
(4) distribution or trafficking in unlawful drugs as defined in Article 3, Chapter 53 of Title 44."
SECTION 2. The last paragraph of Section 20-7-8510(C) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 383 of 1996, is amended to read:
"The Department of Juvenile Justice may fingerprint and photograph a juvenile upon the filing of a petition, release from detention, release on house arrest, or commitment to a juvenile correctional institution. Fingerprints and photographs taken by the department remain confidential and must not be transmitted to the State Law Enforcement Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or another agency or person, except for the purpose of aiding the department in apprehending an escapee from the department, assisting the Missing Persons Information Center in the location or identification of a missing or runaway child, in locating and identifying a child who fails to appear in court as summoned or who is the subject of a house arrest order, or except as otherwise provided in this section."
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.