Friday, August 29, 2008
TOO FEW SESSIONS CONTRIBUTE TO CROWDED DETENTION CENTER
The letter Too few court sessions contribute to crowded detention center by Alvin C. Hanson Jr., Deputy. Administrator (Retired), Charleston County Detention Center, raises some interesting points, but appears to miss the most obvious point.
Mr. Hanson posits that the one sure way to cut overcrowding in the Charleston County Jail is to increase the number of General Court Sessions. He concedes that, as an alternative, "We could set a time for how long a case can be continued before going to trial, " but concludes " That won't work because each case is different and each is handled by an attorney based on workload and whether the client is paying or not." However, he does not consider the obvious solution to relieving overcrowding.
A large percentage of detainees in any County Jail in South Carolina are incarcerated for failure to pay child support. Once they are incarcerated, there is no mechanism in place to allow for their release until they have either served their complete sentence, complied with the terms of the Order of Contempt that resulted in the incarceration, or successfully appealed the Order of Contempt. Scheduling more General Court Sessions will, therefore, do little to decrease the overcrowding in the Charleston County Detention Center. Relieving overcrowding will necessitate finding a way to helping keep fathers out of jail for failure to pay child support and a way of decreasing the amount of time they spend in jail for non-support.
Labels: Family Court Backlog
