South Carolina

Background

South Carolina had the highest reported violent crime rate in the country each year from 2002 to 2008 and an increasing recidivism rate.¹ In response to increasing corrections costs, South Carolina’s leaders created the Sentencing Reform Commission.² South Carolina’s correctional population tripled from 1984 to 2009 and was projected to grow another 13 percent by 2014.³ With technical assistance from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Crime and Justice Institute, the Commission identified four main factors that contributed to the growth in the prison population: sentencing policies that led to a high number of people sentenced to prison for low-level offenses, an increase in the number of people sentenced for nonviolent crimes, an increase in individuals returning to prison for a technical violation of supervision, and a decrease in the parole grant rate.⁴

Policies

The Commission submitted 24 recommendations based on its findings, which were codified in Senate Bill (SB) 1154 and signed into law by then-Governor Mark Sanford. SB 1154 sought to prioritize prison space for people with more serious offenses by making changes to the list of offenses classified as violent, reducing use of imprisonment for certain drug offenses, and equalizing penalties related to crack and powder cocaine.⁵ To strengthen release and supervision decisions, the use of evidence-based practices for probation and parole supervision was expanded, and reentry supervision was mandated.⁶ To that end, South Carolina implemented multiple policy and practice changes.

Outcomes

Through SB 1154, South Carolina implemented evidence-based community supervision strategies, resulting in a 58 percent decline in revocations between 2010 and 2018.⁷ The policy changes also focused prison space on people convicted of serious offenses, contributing to a 22.5 percent decline in the overall prison population between 2009 and 2018. These efforts led to significant savings, with 6 prisons closed and nearly $500 million saved between 2012 and 2017, without an increase in crime.⁸

For more information, see Justice Reinvestment Initiative: South Carolina.

JRI-Driven Policies and Practices

¹ Elizabeth Pelletier et al., Assessing the Impact of South Carolina’s Parole and Probation Reforms, Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, retrieved June 5, 2023 from https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/89871/south_carolina_jri_policy_assessment_final_0.pdf.

² Ibid., 2.

³ Samantha Harvell, Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI): South Carolina, Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, retrieved June 5, 2023 from https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2020/03/06/justice_reinvestment_initiative_jri_south_carolina.pdf.

⁴ South Carolina Sentencing Reform Commission, 2010, Report to the General Assembly, Columbia, SC: Sentencing Reform Commission, retrieved June 5, 2023 from https://www.scstatehouse.gov/Archives/CitizensInterestPage/SentencingReformCommission/CombinedFinalReport020110SigPage.pdf.

⁵ The Pew Center on the States, 2010, South Carolina’s Public Safety Reform: Legislation Enacts Research-based Strategies to Cut Prison Growth and Costs, Washington, DC: The Pew Center on the States, retrieved June 5, 2023 from https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2010/06/10/pspp_south_carolina_brief.pdf.

⁶ South Carolina Sentencing Reform Commission, 2010, Report to the General Assembly, 26.

⁷ Samantha Harvell, Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI): South Carolina, Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.

⁸ Ibid.