South Carolina General Assembly
123rd Session, 2019-2020

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Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

H. 3424

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Rep. Rutherford
Document Path: l:\council\bills\cc\15286cm19.docx

Introduced in the House on January 8, 2019
Currently residing in the House Committee on Judiciary

Summary: Inmate legal counsel access

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  12/18/2018  House   Prefiled
  12/18/2018  House   Referred to Committee on Judiciary
    1/8/2019  House   Introduced and read first time (House Journal-page 234)
    1/8/2019  House   Referred to Committee on Judiciary 
                        (House Journal-page 234)

View the latest legislative information at the website

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

12/18/2018

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A BILL

TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 24-3-980 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT AN INMATE CONFINED TO A STATE, COUNTY, OR MUNICIPAL DETENTION FACILITY SHALL NOT BE PROHIBITED ACCESS TO LEGAL COUNSEL WHEN REQUESTED UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES AND TO DEFINE THE TERM "IN-PERSON MEETING".

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

SECTION    1.    Article 9, Chapter 3, Title 24 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 24-3-980.    (A)    An inmate confined in a state, county, or municipal detention facility shall not be prohibited access to legal counsel when requested, provided such access does not jeopardize the security of the detention facility or prohibit the normal operations of the detention facility. In the event an in-person meeting is requested between an inmate and legal counsel, the state, county, or municipal detention facility shall make a reasonable effort to accommodate the request, provided the meeting does not jeopardize the security of the detention facility or prohibit the normal operations of the detention facility.

(B)    For the purposes of this section, an 'in-person meeting' is a meeting that occurs when an inmate and legal counsel have been placed in the same room or general area with no continuous partition. The state, county, or municipal detention facility may provide general visual observation of the area in which the in-person meeting occurs, but shall not provide audio or video supervision of the area so as to uphold the privileged nature of the inmate's communications with legal counsel."

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

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This web page was last updated on January 16, 2019 at 1:42 PM