Can South Carolina Inmates Get Sentence Reductions? | SC Sentence Reduction Options Explained

¡Hey! So, many times we get telephone calls at our office from inmates who want to know about getting sentence reductions. They want to know if there's some sort of a motion that they can file just to have their sentence reduced. In South Carolina, we don't have that right now. Some of our sister states do. So, for example, North Carolina, Georgia, West Virginia, Florida, they have statutes that allow an inmate to file a motion and have a judge sort of reconsider the sentence that was initially imposed and reduce that. Now, there are a couple of very narrow exceptions to that. We have one statute that says that if you help a correctional officer when he's in danger in an institution, institution, that may be a basis to get a sentence reduction. Also, if an inmate provides substantial assistance to the state in prosecuting another person, that may also allow somebody to get some kind of a small sentence reduction. But we don't have that right now. Some inmates think that they can use post-conviction relief petitions in order to get sentence reductions. That's not technically how that works. The remedy for a successful PCR is to actually either withdraw guilty plea or be granted a new trial, not a sentence reduction. Now, there's a way, I think, to change that, but it would involve calling your legislators and getting people kind of involved in asking for sentence reductions. I mean, it would be pretty easy just to get some kind of a bill passed that would allow inmates to get a sentence reduction. Based on institutional behavior, if they're taking advantage of programming and educational opportunities. Seems to me it would make a lot of sense to give those inmates some reduction in their sentence. So unfortunately, we don't have it right now. I would just encourage you to call your legislators, have your friends and your family call legislators, and maybe we can get something like this passed. Passed in South Carolina. So if you have any questions about this, please feel free to give our firm a call. We can be reached at 803-445-1333. Be more than happy to talk to you about it. Thanks.