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Committee advances bill to let DJJ give juvenile fingerprints to SLED amid privacy concerns
Summary
The subcommittee gave HB 5120 a favorable report after testimony from juvenile justice and civil-rights-informed witnesses; the bill would require detention fingerprints be shared with SLED, while critics warned the change risks expanding sensitive youth data dissemination to schools and increasing stigma.
Chairman Jeff Johnson introduced House Bill 51 20, which the transcript summarizes as amending South Carolina Code section 63-19-20 to clarify when juvenile fingerprint records and photos are taken, how they are maintained, and when they may be transmitted. Testimony reflected divergent concerns about privacy, operational needs and agency coordination.
An unidentified witness testified that the portion of the bill authorizing expanded sharing with schools is duplicative of existing law (the witness cited "section 63 19 8 10 c" and confidentiality under "section 63 19 2 2 2 0 e") and warned that sharing fingerprints and detailed charge information with school principals risks widening dissemination of sensitive juvenile records and could push schools from restorative to exclusionary discipline. The witness urged striking the portion of the bill that authorizes dissemination of fingerprint records to school principals.
Brandon Cox, the bill sponsor, said the juvenile crime assessment ad hoc committee and public testimony shaped this legislation; he described the bills as products of community and agency input aimed at improving safety. Eden Hendrick, Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice, explained that the bill would require DJJ to take fingerprints when a youth is detained at a DJJ facility and would permit DJJ to provide those fingerprints to SLED, creating a central repository SLED can access. Hendrick said she did not interpret the bill as intended to give additional information to schools, noted existing restrictions on SLED's redistribution, and said expungement practice for fingerprints would be governed by the relevant expungement statute (which she did not cite from memory).
After questions and no amendments, the committee ordered a roll call. The transcript records votes as "Aye" from Chairman Johnson, Representative Bailey, Representative Hart, Representative Robbins and Representative Rose and the clerk announced the bill receiving a favorable report.
