Career Criminal Prosecution Team makes progress, solicitor says

Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said he's cautiously optimistic a prosecution team he started this year will get the funding it needs to continue targeting Beaufort County'sviolent and repeat offenders.

The Career Criminal Prosecution Team's goal is to get offenders with multiple felony arrests to trial more quickly.

The team prosecuted 13 cases in the first quarter of 2009 and won 12 of them. Stone said the team has helped reduce the judicial backlog by streamlining the process for all his trial teams and cutting down on the number of prisoners awaiting trial at the Beaufort County Detention Center.

Deputy Solicitor Angela McCall-Tanner, who leads the career criminal team, said a case can be assigned to the team for several reasons, but there are two main considerations:

• whether the alleged offense is violent or heinous

• does successful prosecution of the case make a difference in the crime stats if the person is convicted and taken off the streets.

"We want the guys who are continually a problem for law enforcement," she said.

Alleged offenders with long arrest records and those charged with violent crimes such as murder, rape or armed robbery, often get large bonds that they can't afford. Sometimes they're held without bond and must await a trial date that can be months away.

That increases overcrowding in the detention center, director Phillip Foot said.

On Thursday, the detention center had 297 prisoners, Foot said, 42 more than its capacity. That marks an improvement over last summer, when on an average day, the jail was 100 or more inmates over capacity, Foot said.

Long-term prisoners -- those held longer than 90 days awaiting trial -- have dropped from 125 in November to 72 in April, the last time statistics were compiled, Stone said of the numbers Foot compiled.

It's not clear how much the reduction of prisoner numbers has saved taxpayers or to what extent Stone's program is responsible for it, Foot said.

But he thinks the career criminal team has played a part.

Sending major felony cases to the career criminal team frees other prosecutors to move more quicklythrough the docket of lesser offenses, Stone said.

"I think everyone sees the benefit of what we're doing," Stone said.

But whether local governments can continue to fund the project is still in question.

The team's three lawyers andvictim's advocate to be added later costs $277,200 a year. Most of that cost isn't covered in Stone's state budget and will have to come from local governments, he said.

Beaufort County gave $187,000 for the fiscal year that ends July 1. Bluffton gave $30,000 for the same period.

Hilton Head Island pledged last week to give $35,000 in the next fiscal year. Beaufort County has pledged another $187,000 for the next fiscal year.

Port Royal has set aside some funds for projects like the career criminal team, but won't decide until August or September how to spend that money, officials said.

Stone also applied for a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department for several projects. He expects to find out within weeks if he's getting any of that money. If awarded the full amount, those funds would help him expand the project to Jasper, Colleton, Hampton and Allendale counties, the four other counties covered by his office,.

Stone started the project in Beaufort County because it has the largest number of violent and repeat cases and a larger prosecutorial staff to maintain the team

Stone has been able to tighten the team's budget so far by not hiring the victim's advocate and cutting costs by keeping staff salaries low. He understands municipalities might not be able to fund the program because of the struggling economy.

Council members from several municipalities had a similar sentiment, but most hope to be able to contribute to the team.

"What's not to like about it?" Port Royal councilman Joe Lee said. "It's just a matter of paying for it."