Can I Get Credit for Time Served in South Carolina?

South Carolina law allows defendants to receive credit for time served prior to sentencing. Receiving credit for time served means that you will get out of jail or prison faster. Credit should be awarded on a “day by day” basis. For each day you spend in custody before trial, you should receive that many days of credit against your sentence.

Unfortunately, our local courts do not always apply the law properly. Call Attorney Yarborough for help with your case if you believe you are being denied credit for time served. Our experienced Greenville, SC criminal defense lawyer knows how to get credit for time served in jail and can take steps to protect you.

South Carolina’s Law

The relevant law is found at South Carolina Code § 24-13-40, which explains how to compute a sentence. The law states that in all computations, full credit must be given against the sentence for any time served before trial and sentencing. Further, the law says that credit “may be given” for any time spent under monitored house arrest.

A defendant might spend time in custody while awaiting trial. Not every defendant is eligible for bail, or they cannot scrape together the money for a bail bond. In those situations, they could end up spending months behind bars awaiting their trial date. If convicted, the time spent in custody should be credited against the sentence imposed.

For example, suppose you waited six months in jail for your trial. You are then sentenced to three years in prison for committing a crime. That means you should receive credit for six months, lowering the time left to serve to 30 months.

In some cases, you might not spend any of your sentence in jail if the amount of time served exceeds your sentence. That is one consequence of the law.

Time Served Meaning

“Time served” is any time in custody. Most often, defendants spend time behind bars. The law also allows a judge to consider house arrest as “time served,” which can be set off against a sentence.

There are some exceptions where time in custody doesn’t count as “time served” and is therefore not credited against the sentence. The law excludes credit for any time served:

1. If the defendant was an escapee from another penal institution,
2. When the prisoner is serving a sentence for one offense while waiting trial for a second offense,
3. When the defendant commits another crime while out on bond, or
4. Bond was revoked on any charge before trial or a plea deal.

For example, a defendant might be in jail already after a conviction for felony DUI. Their trial for drug possession is delayed, and they are convicted a year later of the drug offense. The year spent behind bars for felony DUI does not get credited against the sentence for drug possession under section 24-13-40.

Contact our office to speak with a criminal defense lawyer if you have questions about whether time in custody will be credited against your sentence to reduce the amount of time in jail. We can review the facts.

How to Get Credit For Time Served in Jail

The court should already include information about time served on your sentencing sheet. However, they might overlook it, in which case a defendant will need to take additional steps.

Your attorney might immediately notice the omission of credit for time served and bring it to the judge’s attention. Your lawyer might also file a motion for the court to properly award credit for time served.

If you are already in custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), then you should file a grievance form with SCDC. Notify them that you have jail credits that were not applied to your sentencing sheet. They can recalculate the amount of time you have left to serve your sentence.

Otherwise, you might need to file an application with the court for post-conviction relief. Work closely with an experienced criminal defense attorney if you need to take this step.

How Attorney Yarborough Can Help

Our firm has handled all types of sentencing issues for clients in Greenville. We help clients with the following:

1. Calculate time served. We do this for all our clients. If you are in custody awaiting trial, we carefully calculate the full amount of time you have served, which should be credited to you.
2. Argue that monitored house arrest should qualify. We try to get as much time credited to our clients as possible. That will reduce the duration spent in jail if a judge sends you there.
3. Check the sentencing sheet. This is a standard process for our clients. Should you lose your trial and be sentenced, we always check to see that the judge properly counted and credited time served. If not, we will bring this to the court’s attention immediately.
4. Notify SCDC. Some of our clients contact us for appeals. We did not handle their trial, but they reached out to our office after conviction. We can check to see if these clients were given credit for time served and, if not, we can notify SCDC so they can credit you.
5. Take other steps. Sometimes SCDC does not move, even when we point out a mistake. In that case, we might need to head into court to ask a judge to give credit for time served.

In our experience, SCDC is responsive to any request. But you benefit from having a lawyer represent you. We can help anyone in the 29609 zip code and surrounding areas.

Call to Speak with a Criminal Defense Lawyer

South Carolina’s law on time served is clear: if you served time in jail awaiting trial, you should be given credit in most cases. Contact us for immediate help or for answers to your questions. Attorney William Yarborough has defended clients from all sorts of criminal charges, and we can help those challenging their sentences. Our Greenville, SC, criminal defense lawyer can meet with you for a confidential consultation.