The raise the age law goes into effect Monday.
Starting July 1st seventeen year olds charged with a crime in South Carolina will no longer be tried as an adult. Those cases will go through family court.
“I think a littl bit of the thought of it is that it will give them one more yeart to try and keep them from ending up in the prison system as adults,” said Horry County Assistant Solicitor Lauren Vinson.
The Horry County Solicitor’s office is preparing for a significant increase in cases.
Juveniles can be charged with a status offense like a run away charge. Increasing the juvenile age to 17 means more of those in family court.
Statewide in 2016, there were 13,000 juvenile cases, and 17 year olds alone were an additional 6,000 cases.
“Family court tries to intervene rather than just punish so there are alot more diversion programs and a lot more interventions that are attempted in order to keep juveniles out of adult prisons,” said Vinson.
Exceptions to the new law include teens younger than 18 that are accused of a felony that carries a sentence of 15 years or more which include some of the most serious crimes.
“We get a lot of simple possession all the way up to attempted murder and unfortunately sometimes murder,” said Vinson.
As of June 2018, there are 29 seventeen year olds serving time in adult prisons.
“The reality is, a 17 year old doesn’t need to be in jail with 30 year olds or 40 year olds who are career criminals,” said Chief Deputy Tom Fox with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office.
Despite fewer 17 year olds charged with minor offenses being held at J Reuben Long Detention Center, they could have more transports. Currently, there is only one there is only one central juvenile center in Columbia.
“We’re not certified by DJJ or the Department of Corrections to house juveniles. We can only house them for 6 hours in our facility so then we would have to transport them to a juvenile place,” said Fox.
The Horry County Sheriff’s Office partners with the solictior’s office for their diversion programs and has the SOAR program which aims to keep at risk youth out of jail.
“Work them up, do some hard physcial exercise to try to tear them down then they meet with counselors to talk about their issues. A greater majority of children turn their life around and divert back from criminal activity,” said Fox.
The “Raise the Age Law” was signed by Governor Nikki Haley back in 2016, but implementation was delayed until this year due to funding. Right now there is only funding for the fiscal year.
That funding goes towards anything that has an effect on the system like diversion programs, housing, and probation
Senator Gerald Malloy said lawmakers will meet on July 23rd to determine where recurring funds will come from.
The law also extends the age a person can be in DJJ’s custody from 21 to 22.