Youth Behind the Fence: Explore the Data on SCDJJ (2015-2025)

The South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice stopped publishing basic transparency reports about the children in its care after 2021. So we filed public records requests and made our own report.

What we found was disturbing: dangerous conditions and widening patterns of racial inequality in a system that locks up children for non-violent offenses that could be better handled in the community.

These are some of our key findings. For more details, including expert interviews and policy recommendations, read the full report, Youth Behind the Fence, out September 9, 2026

South Carolina continues to lock up children for status offenses, or activities that are only illegal because of the offender’s age. South Carolina is the only state in America that sends minors into its juvenile justice system based solely on a status offense. In the 2025 fiscal year, 14% of SCDJJ referrals and 8% of detentions were for status offenses including truancy, incorrigibility, running away, and possession of alcohol while underage.

Racial inequality in the juvenile justice system is getting worse. Solicitors and schools continue to refer a disproportionate number of Black youth to SCDJJ, and the agency detains a disproportionate number of them. Black children comprise roughly 28% of South Carolina’s youth population, but more than 75% of the children detained by SCDJJ in 2025.

The S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice continues to place vulnerable youth in harm’s way. After years of rampant staff turnover, corruption, and multiple high-profile instances of violence at the hands of corrections officers and fellow youth, the agency still fails to protect traumatized youth from further traumatization
while in its care.

Children are suffering today because of the failures of the system South Carolina built. Our hope is that the data and the stories in our September 2026 report, Youth Behind the Fence, spur the legislature and community leaders across the state to take urgent action.

If you would like to have a copy of the records used in this report, they are available to download here. If you have questions about the data or are having trouble with access, contact Communications Director Paul Bowers at [email protected]

The data sets are incomplete and inconsistent across years due to inconsistent reporting by SCDJJ. County-level data is missing from the fiscal years 2022-2024, when SCDJJ stopped publishing annual reports. The 2025 county-level data, obtained via a public records request under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act, does not include racial demographic data.

Status offenses are defined in S.C. Code of Laws Section 63-19-20(9): "’Status offense’ means an offense which would not be a misdemeanor or felony if committed by an adult including, but not limited to, incorrigibility or beyond the control of parents, truancy, running away, playing or loitering in a billiard room, playing a pinball machine, or gaining admission to a theater by false identification.”

For the purposes of this report, the following offenses are considered status offenses: Contempt of Court by Child (Status); false representation of age to obtain liquors; minor purchase or possession of alcoholic liquors; purchase or possession of beer or wine by minor; Municipal or Local Jurisdiction Status Offense; Probation Violation for Cat. VI - Status; Status: Incorrigible, Ungovernable, Beyond the Control of Parents; Runaway; and Truancy.

Violent or serious offenses: The S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice has referred to the following offenses as "violent or serious" reasons for referral: murder, criminal sexual conduct 1st & 2nd degree, assault & battery with intent to kill, kidnapping, voluntary manslaughter, armed robbery, arson 1st & 2nd degree, burglary 1st & 2nd degree, drug trafficking, and all offenses categorized in the South Carolina Code of Laws as acts against persons, except for non-aggravated assaults such as assault and battery 3rd degree.

For a longer glossary of terms, read the full report, Youth Behind the Fence.

Data Visualizations by Alex Yurcaba and Lizzy Schick, Lead Analysts, ACLU Technology Department. Data Requests by Paul Bowers, Communications Director, ACLU of South Carolina.