Push against parole

By Amanda Kinseth
Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 6:46 p.m.

Convicted criminals in South Carolina could lose their option for parole. The South Carolina Attorney General is finished with his two day tour across the state pushing his plan to abolish parole.

The state already abolished parole for the most violent crimes. Now the Attorney General wants legislators to finish the job and abolish it across the board. As it stands, he says people aren't confident in the justice system.

Shane Lawshe is someone prosecutors call a classic case of what can happen when a criminal is let out on parole. Lawshe is charged with murdering a woman after he was released from prison on parole. It's a situation the South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster wants to abolish by abolishing parole all together.

"It's the integrity of the criminal justice system," said McMaster. As he speaks with us, he's holding 41 pages of parole eligible crimes, like criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature. They are crimes he thinks should keep people in prison for the long haul.

"The judge gave him 10 years, the parole board let him out after five, and he killed your loved one 6 months later," said McMaster giving an example. "How do you explain that?"

But, how do you explain that to jails that are so overcrowded already, they must expand. Mike Illes with the J. Reuben Long Detention Center says no more parole means no more room, period. "If they abolish parole today, literally our population would skyrocket in comparison."

Illes says most people in the detention center are waiting for trial and less likely to accept a plea if there's no option for parole. "He's going to spend a little more time thinking about that and possibly going for a jury trial."

But after the jury trial, as it stands, a sentence is more of a vague statement. Just ask Horry County Solicitor Greg Hembree.

"The victim looks at me and says alright, I heard that he got 10 years, but what does that really mean," said Hembree.

McMaster says he wants a sentence to be set in stone. "If they do the crime, they're going to have to do the time."

The Horry County Public Defender Orrie West says parole is a tool that gives prisoners incentive to have good behavior. Hembree says parole just hinders the justice system. The head of the State Corrections Department, Jon Ozmint, says he's not opposed to McMaster's plan, he just wants some assurance the funds are there to house inmates for longer periods of time.

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News & Politics

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• South_Carolina
• parole
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