COLUMBIA — In an effort to reduce overcrowding in South Carolina’s juvenile jail, senators advanced a bill Thursday that would require counties to pay more for each teenager detained.
Since 2007, state law has capped the amount counties must pay the state at $50 per day per juvenile awaiting a court ruling. The actual cost is closer to $400, said Eden Hendrick, director of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
“We’re hoping that maybe this higher-level price will discourage some counties from bringing those youth to Columbia,” she told a Senate Corrections subcommittee…