victim services
The Division of Victim Services
The South Carolina Department of Corrections is serious about its commitment to crime victims.What may distinguish the South Carolina Department of Corrections from other corrections-based victim notification programs is that the concept of victim services permeates the entire agency. The victim emphasis is pervasive in all agency decision making and program implementation activities. Several examples are provided next that illustrate how victims have been included in departmental decisions and activities.
The following highlights how the Division of Victim Services is committed to victims:
• The Agency implemented the South Carolina Automated Victim Notification System to provide automated telephone notification calls to registered victims and to provide a toll-free automated inquiry line that allows victims to check on an offender’s status at any time of the day or night.
• Face-to-face media interviews and photographs of inmates have been stopped so as not to glamorize the crimes of the offenders, and not to re-victimize the victims and their family members.
• Violent offenders have been removed from community-based programs such as work release.
• The Impact of Crime Program was implemented in 1998 to promote offender accountability. Sixteen institutions currently have this education-based program.
• Prior to offender placements in local detention facilities, each registered victim is contacted for input and concurrence.
• Home-visit furloughs have been stopped.
• A toll-free telephone number has been installed strictly for use by victims and their families.
• Inmate organizations are required to give 15 percent of their fundraising proceeds to victim service organizations or to a charity.
• Work-release inmates are assessed 20 percent of their gross wages. Those assessments are directed toward funding the Agency’s Division of Victim Services and toward the Victim Assistance Program that awards grants to victim-service organizations.
• Prison industries inmates are assessed 20 percent of their gross wages for the Victim Compensation Fund that awards financial assistance to crime victims, according to state law.
• The sale of confiscated inmate jewelry has raised more than $12,000, which was given to the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network (SCVAN) for victim scholarships and also to the South Carolina Coalition for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (SCADVASA) for transitional housing.
Other Points of Interest
With regard to executions, special briefings are held with the victim's
families following the SC Supreme Court's order to carry out an execution.
With the uniqueness of this event, special procedures are in place and
thoughtful attention is given to execution witnesses. The South Carolina
Code of Laws now allows three of the victim's family representatives to
witness the execution. This change is a result of the efforts of the Department
of Corrections working with the General Assembly.
Assaulted Employees
Also important are services to employees assaulted on the job.
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) is a program that was established to provide
support services to staff who have been assaulted and/or otherwise experience trauma.
There are several levels of support that are being implemented within the CISM Program.
While not all of these services are yet available, they continue to be established at this time
and are in varying states of implementation projected over the coming months and years.
CISM currently provides peer support and group intervention services.
Outcomes
There are more than 19,000 active victims registered
for notification. There are more than 25,000 inactive victim records that
are automatically reactivated upon the return of the offender. The number
of registered victims has grown by an average of 28 percent in each of
the last five years. The Department of Corrections maintains the largest
data bank of crime victims in the state and makes it available on a confidential
basis to the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services and the
SC Attorney General's Office.
The victims of both violent and nonviolent cases are
registered. Of the total inmate population, 42 percent of all inmates
have registered victims.
Conclusion
The South Carolina Department of Corrections has learned
that including victims in its decision-making process is not problematic
and has had a positive effect. The department also learned that having
a Division of Victim Services provides wardens and institutional staff
a referral resource so their time can be better spent on matters of security
and operation of the institution. The victim services staff is trained
to handle inquiry calls, letters, and special requests.
News Items Related to the Division of Victim Services:
Division of Victim Services Receives Best Practices Award from the American Correctional Association.For more information, contact:
Division of Victims Services
South Carolina Department of Corrections
P. O. Box 21787
Columbia, South Carolina 29221
(803) 896-1733 or 1-800-835-0304
VictimServices@doc.sc.gov