South Carolina H 5118: Juvenile Justice

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 5118 Text of Previous Version (Feb. 05, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 5118

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 SECTIONS 63-19-360, 63-19-810, 63-19-1440, 
AND 63-19-1810, ALL RELATING TO JUVENILE JUSTICE PROCEEDINGS, SO AS TO REQUIRE 
COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENTS AS PART OF JUVENILE EVALUATIONS, TO MAKE CERTAIN CHANGES 
PERTAINING TO THE DETENTION OF JUVENILES IN JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITIES AND 
THEIR COMMITMENT TO THE CUSTODY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE; AND FOR 
OTHER PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. Section 63-19-360(3) of the S.C. Code is amended to 
read:

 (3) establishing and maintaining 
residential and nonresidential reception and evaluation centers at which all 
children committed to its custody by a circuit or family court must be 
received, examined, and evaluated before assignment to one of its institutions 
or before other disposition or recommendation is made concerning the child. The 
commitment of a child to a reception and evaluation center or youth 
correctional institution of the department may be made only after the child has 
been adjudicated delinquent. The evaluation conducted by the reception and 
evaluation centers includes, but is not limited to:

 (a) a complete social, physical, psychological, and mental 
examination a comprehensive, individualized 
biopsychosocial assessment to include an examination of the child's social, 
physical, and mental health functioning;

 (b) 
an investigation and consideration of family and community environment and 
other facts in the background of the person concerned that might relate to the 
person's delinquency;

 (c) 
a determination of the correctional or custodial care that would be most 
appropriate. The department shall create facilities and employ personnel as 
will enable the centers to conduct the necessary physical, 
mental, and psychological examinations and 
assessments required by this section;

SECTION 2. Section 63-19-810 of the S.C. Code is amended by 
adding:

 (E) No child or juvenile eighteen 
years of age or older will be detained in a juvenile detention facility. Upon 
written notice from a juvenile detention facility that a child or juvenile is eighteen 
years of age or older, local law enforcement immediately must transport the 
person to the county detention center.

SECTION 3. Section 63-19-1440 of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 Section 
63-19-1440. (A) A child, after the child's twelfth 
birthday and before the eighteenth birthday or while under the jurisdiction of 
the family court for disposition of ana criminal offense that occurred prior to the child's 
eighteenth birthday, may be committed to the custody of the Department of 
Juvenile Justice which shall arrange for placement in a suitable corrective 
environment. Children under the age of twelve years may be committed only to 
the custody of the department which shall arrange for placement in a suitable 
corrective environment other than institutional confinement. No child under the 
age of eighteen years may be committed or sentenced to any other penal or 
correctional institution of this State.

 (B) 
All commitments to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice for 
delinquency as opposed to the conviction of a specific crime may be made only 
for the reasons and in the manner prescribed in Sections 63-3-510, 63-3-520, 
63-3-580, 63-3-600, 63-3-650, and this chapter, with evaluations made and 
proceedings conducted only by the judges authorized to order commitments in 
this section. When a child is committed to the custody of the department as part of the disposition of the criminal offense, 
commitment must be for an indeterminate sentence, not extending beyond the 
twenty-second birthday of the child unless sooner released by the department, 
or for a determinate commitment sentence not to exceed ninety days for misdemeanor offenses or one hundred eighty days for felony 
offenses. A child may not be committed to the department for more than one 
hundred and eighty days for an adjudication resulting from a probation 
violation or contempt of court of an underlying criminal offense.

 (C) 
The court, before committing a child as a delinquent or as a part of a sentence 
including commitments for contempt, shall order a community evaluation or 
temporarily commit the child to the Department of Juvenile Justice for not more 
than forty-five days for evaluation. A community evaluation is equivalent to a 
residential evaluation, but it is not required to include all components of a 
residential evaluation. However, in either evaluation the department shall make 
a recommendation to the court on the appropriate disposition o