How South Carolina handles a case
What happens after an arrest anywhere in South Carolina: who decides release first, how fast a person sees a judge, which courts hear the case, and who runs the offices around them. Every county in the state works under these rules.
From arrest to court
- Who decides release first
A magistrate, or a municipal judge for city charges, sets bond at a hearing within 24 hours of arrest. Magistrates need not be lawyers. A magistrate can't set bail on a charge punishable by death or life in prison; a circuit judge does.
S.C. Code 22-5-510S.C. Code 17-15-10 and following- Time to see a judge
A person charged with a bailable offense must have a bond hearing within 24 hours of arrest, and the jail must release the person within four hours after the bond is delivered.
S.C. Code 22-5-510(B)- Money bail
Magistrates and judges may set cash or surety bonds. A person charged with a new violent offense while out on bond for one loses the first bond, and any new bond must be paid in full cash.
S.C. Code 17-15-10, 17-15-15, 17-15-55- Pretrial risk assessment
No law requires a pretrial risk tool, and no statewide tool was found.
Mapping Pretrial Risk, State Laws on RATs- Courts
The circuit court, sitting as the Court of General Sessions, tries felonies and the more serious misdemeanors. Magistrate courts in each county try crimes punished by up to 30 days in jail or a $500 fine, and municipal courts try similar crimes and ordinance violations inside city limits.
S.C. Code 22-3-540, 22-3-550S.C. Const. art. V, sec. 13- Judges and magistrates
The General Assembly elects circuit judges by a joint vote for six-year terms. The governor appoints magistrates, with the Senate's consent, for four-year terms. Magistrates appointed since 2005 need a four-year college degree and must pass a certification exam, but need not be lawyers.
S.C. Const. art. V, sec. 13S.C. Code 22-1-10- Prosecutors
Voters in each of the 16 judicial circuits elect a solicitor for a four-year term. The solicitor prosecutes criminal cases in every county of the circuit.
S.C. Const. art. V, sec. 24- Public defense
Each of the 16 judicial circuits has a circuit public defender's office. The state Commission on Indigent Defense appoints each circuit public defender for a four-year term, and the state and counties share the cost. The commission also contracts with private lawyers.
S.C. Commission on Indigent Defense, Circuit Public Defenders- Jails
The sheriff has custody of the county jail. With the county council's approval, a sheriff may hand that duty to the county government, so some county detention centers report to the county and not the sheriff.
S.C. Code 24-5-10, 24-5-12
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Magistrates are called summary court judges, so setter_is_judge is "yes" though they need not be lawyers. Whether municipal or magistrate courts use a bail schedule for minor offenses was not found. How many counties have moved the jail from the sheriff to the county government was not counted.