South Carolina H 3385: Inmate work camps

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 3385 Text of Previous Version (Dec. 06, 2024) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 3385

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

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

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH 
CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING SECTION 24-3-130, RELATING TO USE OF INMATE 
LABOR FOR CERTAIN PUBLIC PROJECTS, SO AS TO DELETE REFERENCES TO THE 
CONSTRUCTION OF WORK CAMPS.

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

SECTION 1. Section 24-3-130 of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 Section 
24-3-130. (A) The Department of 
Corrections may permit the use of inmate labor on state highway projects or 
other public projects that may be practical and consistent with safeguarding of 
the inmates employed on the projects and the public. The Department of Transportation, 
another state agency, or a county, municipality, or public service district 
making a beneficial public improvement may apply to the department for the use 
of inmate labor on the highway project or other public improvement or 
development project. If the director determines that the labor may be performed 
with safety and the project is beneficial to the public, he may assign inmates 
to labor on the highway project or other public purpose project. The inmate 
labor force must be supervised and controlled by officers designated by the 
department but the direction of the work performed on the highway or other 
public improvement project must be under the control and supervision of the 
person designated by the agency, county, municipality, or public service 
district responsible for the work. No person convicted of criminal sexual 
conduct in the first, second, or third degree or a person who commits a violent 
crime while on a work release program may be assigned to perform labor on a 
project described by this section.

 (B) 
The authorities involved may enter into contracts to implement the provisions 
of this section.

 (C) Notwithstanding any 
other provisions of this chapter, inmates constructing work camps on county 
property must be supervised and controlled by armed officers and must be drawn 
exclusively from minimum security facilities. A work camp constructed or operated 
by the Department of Corrections must house only offenders classified as 
nonviolent. The contracting officials for the county utilizing prison inmate 
labor must be provided by the Department of Corrections with the most recent 
information concerning the composition of all work crews including the 
respective offenses for which the inmates have been sentenced and their custody 
levels.

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

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This web page was last updated on December 06, 2024 at 11:32 AM