State loses roughly $110,000 yearly in federal funds to keep juveniles out of trouble
By Skylar Laird
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — Running away, skipping school or generally being hard to manage can all land a child in a juvenile detention center for up to 90 days, a practice senators worry can cause children long-lasting emotional harm.
South Carolina is the only state that detains children for so-called status offenses, or crimes that only apply to youth under 18, Department of Juvenile Justice Director Eden Hendrick recently told senators.
“We are the outliers,” Hendrick said. “We are the ones who do not follow the best practices, do not follow the research, do not follow what everyone else does and has proven to produce better outcomes for youth, and we lose federal money because of it.”
A bill advanced recently by the Senate Judiciary Committee would not allow the state to detain a child charged with a single status offense. Senators took up the bill this week on the floor but never got to a vote, meaning it will miss a legislative deadline and is unlikely to become law this year.
However, the debate highlighted concerns about the state locking up children for minor offenses in already overcrowded, deteriorating facilities.
Under existing law, children accused of a status offense can spend up to 24 hours in a juvenile jail. If they violate a court order, that goes up to 72 hours. But if a judge orders the child evaluated by a professional, that could extend their stay in a detention center or evaluation center for up to 45 days. Juveniles found guilty by a judge of the status offense can be locked up for up to three months.
Status offenders make up only a small portion of the children in DJJ’s facilities, Hendrick told senators.
But that creates another problem: The agency doesn’t have the resources for status offenders to be kept separate from children accused of violent crimes, she said.
“We have status offenders in the same buildings, in the same classes, in the same gyms as youth charged with very, very, very serious crimes,” Hendrick said.
Children detained
Between July 2020 and June 2021, 6% of the children detained at DJJ facilities were there for a status offense, according to the latest department data available.
The bill would eliminate the 24-hour holding and 90-day detention periods. Even if a child is guilty of cutting class, for example, they shouldn’t be locked up in a detention facility for something so minor, senators said.
It would also reduce how long juveniles can be detained for violating a court order. The max would be two days instead of three.
“The idea of sending a 13-year-old who’s just run away from school a couple times to DJJ — that scares the hell out of me, because that’s going to scare the hell out of him,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield.
Staying in a juvenile jail for up to 90 days can have much longer emotional effects on children, not to mention putting them behind on schoolwork, said Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, who sponsored the bill.
“By the time they get back, they’re behind, and they’re never going to get caught back up,” said the Orangeburg Democrat.
Reducing the number of youth in DJJ’s facilities would also help relieve overcrowding, even if only slightly, Hendrick said.
The Columbia detention center regularly has far more than the 72 children that are supposed to be maximum capacity. The monthly average reached as high as 134 last May, according to numbers the agency gave the House budget-writing committee. How many of those were status offenders is unclear.
“Every less kid that we have in our system is helpful,” Hendrick said. “It doesn’t directly pinpoint some of the issues, but it is a good start, and it will help.”
Children accused of status offenses would still be subject to evaluations in the department’s facilities under the bill. In the 2021 fiscal year, around 30% of the department’s requests for evaluations were for status offenders, according to department data. Most of those were children who violated a court order for a status offense.
The evaluations typically take about a day, but scheduling hundreds of evaluations each year can be difficult because the department has a limited number of mental health professionals, Hutto said.
Because of staff shortages, lowering the amount of time the department can keep children before evaluating them may not be feasible, Hutto said. But he encouraged the department to try to keep children for the shortest amount of time possible so they can get back home.
“I would urge DJJ to find ways to more efficiently do these evaluations and get these young people back,” Hutto said.
Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville, questioned whether the state should be locking up children at all, regardless of what crime they’re accused of committing.
“There should not be a prison for children,” Malloy said during committee hearings.
Senators voted down an amendment he proposed on the floor Wednesday evening that would have created sweeping changes in the state’s juvenile justice system, going far beyond locking up status offenders.
Funding for preventative programs
The state regularly loses out on about $110,000 of federal money annually, since the state doesn’t comply with federal law on not locking up children, University of South Carolina researcher Aleksandra Chauhan told senators.
“It’s pretty embarrassing, I would say, to be consistently out of compliance,” Chauhan said.
For an agency with more than $150 million at its disposal, an extra $100,000 is a drop in the bucket. But with most of its money going toward fixing crumbling buildings — including millions to fix walls and plumbing destroyed by teens, and paying corrections officers — any amount helps, Hendrick said.
The federal money is meant to go toward creating programs across the state to keep children from committing offenses in the first place. Often, children who are skipping school, running away or acting out are dealing with deeper problems, which programs like that could help address, she said.
Massey said there’s got to be a better way to address problems than locking children up.
“I want them not to be truants, I want them not to be incorrigible, but I don’t know that this is the way to fix them,” he said.
What is a status offense?
Under S.C. state law, a status offense is a crime that only applies to juveniles. They include:
- Incorrigibility, or being beyond the control of parents
- Truancy
- Running away
- Playing or loitering in a billiard room
- Playing a pinball machine
- Gaining admission to a theater by false identification
By the numbers
Youth can be referred to DJJ by a judge or a school, detained for a short amount of time, evaluated on a judge’s orders or committed to a long-term facility. In 2020 and 2021, DJJ reported:
- 1,528 juveniles referred for status offenses
- 134 evaluated for status offenses
- 88 detained for status offenses
- 59 on probation for status offenses
- 14 committed to a facility for status offenses
Source: S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice FY 2020-2021 Data Resource Guide
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau.
S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
