Law and Disorder
Too much spent on prisons, study says
Researchers call for more put into probation, parole
COLUMBIA - South Carolina puts far too many of its resources into locking up prisoners and not enough toward criminals serving sentences on probation and parole, according to a study released Monday by The Pew Center on the States.
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Cutbacks endanger public, officials say
Probation and parole
The state is endangering the public and adding to the burden of local police by slashing nearly $3.5 million from the agency that tracks thousands of criminals free on probation and parole, law enforcement leaders said Monday.
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Victims of parole
Some aim to abolish system to prevent future violent crimes
Debbie Spry gently ran her hand across her only son's grave marker, her eyes welling with tears as she stared at his smiling photo. Travis had been such a big-hearted kid, just 17 when he was strangled in Charleston for some car stereo speakers.
Last year, Spry watched as Travis' boyhood friend, who set him up for the killing, received a 13-year sentence as an accessory to murder. Then, in utter disbelief, she found herself fighting to keep him in prison after he became eligible for parole just 10 months later.
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Losing numbers game
Budget cuts, economy put overwhelming caseloads on state probation agents
Like many state probation and parole agents, Kescia Holmes took the job hoping to make a difference in people's lives and steer the wayward back onto the right path.
The 10-year veteran still recalls the young drug addict intent on giving her a hard time. Holmes delved deeper and discovered that the woman had been molested as a child.
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Judicial dilemma
Courts face tough choices on probation, prison
A young man in black hunched over on a bench outside the courtroom door, head hung low and right leg pumping like a piston.
His girlfriend sat beside him, twirling a lock of hair around an ornately painted fingernail and staring into space. She seemed oblivious to the people pacing the worn blue carpet around her.
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Circle of crime
Police, probation agents chase same people over and over again
Lt. Stephen Wright gunned his police cruiser down Meeting Street in Charleston, anxiously tapping his fingers on the steering wheel as he tried to gain ground on a Honda sedan racing into the distance.
Wright couldn't afford to lose the Honda's driver, a broad-shouldered ex-con wanted for probation violations.
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A Public at Risk
A look at South Carolina's broken probation and parole system
Julianne Blakeley did what many do when they need their homes painted. She hired a contractor. And, as with most homeowners, she knew almost nothing about the painters she invited in. On the morning of Sept. 26, firefighters rushed to Blakeley's Litchfield Beach home after neighbors saw smoke coming from the house. They found the 63-year-old woman dead, partially clothed in her bed.
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