Rule 31.Pre-adjudicatory detention

Rule 31 opens Section IV, which governs juvenile actions, and it puts a clock on detention before adjudication.

What the judge must find

Two findings, and they are alternatives on the first point: that detention is necessary for protection of the community or to serve the best interest of a child — and that such detention is likely to be for a period in excess of 48 hours.

The 48-hour figure is what makes the rule bite. Short detention is not what Rule 31 addresses; it governs the point at which detention stops being brief.

What the judge may then do

Upon adequate evidence and testimony, and by appropriate order, the judge may extend such detention for a period not to exceed 7 days.

And additional extensions not to exceed 7 days each may be made by subsequent orders. So detention is renewed in seven-day increments, each one a fresh judicial act rather than a continuation of the first.

The order itself

The order shall be in writing or reduced to writing and shall recite appropriate findings of fact.

"Or reduced to writing" allows the judge to rule from the bench when circumstances demand, but the written order still has to follow, and it must carry the findings. Compare Rule 26(a), which imposes the same discipline on the domestic relations side — the requirement that a decision show its reasons runs through both halves of this ruleset.

Where it sits

Rule 32 governs the detention hearing at which these findings are made, including what evidence the court may admit and what happens when the parents cannot be found. And Rule 2(b) supplies the rest of the procedure: Sections I, II and IV of these rules plus Rules 5, 6, 24 and 29 of the South Carolina Rules of Criminal Procedure.