Chesterfield County Detention Center Inmate Bail & Bonds

A magistrate usually decides. If town police in Cheraw or Pageland made the arrest, a municipal judge may do it instead. South Carolina promises each arrested person this hearing inside 24 hours (S.C. Code 22-5-510). Locally, Bond Court meets at the Detention Center, 319 Goodale Road, Chesterfield, SC 29709, on this timetable:

• Weekdays: 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
• Saturdays and Sundays: 8:00 to 10:00 a.m., plus 5:00 p.m.
• Holidays: times vary, so phone first.

Bond Court's line is 843-623-2261. Murder, plus any charge punishable by execution or a life term, follows another path. No magistrate may grant bond on those. A circuit judge handles it, and that hearing tends to come later (S.C. Code 22-5-510(A)).

South Carolina tilts toward release on the person's own word for any charge short of a capital one (S.C. Code 17-15-10). Money or tighter rules come in when the judge doubts that word. Options open to the magistrate:

• Personal recognizance (PR). Zero dollars today. A dollar figure still goes on the paper, and it comes due after a skipped court date.
• Cash. Every dollar is handed over. The law allows it to be deposited with the magistrate or town judge (S.C. Code 22-5-530).
• Surety. A bondsman holding a state license backs the whole figure, charging a fee for the favor.
• Ten percent cash. Where the judge says yes, the family deposits up to one tenth with the Clerk of Court. Anyone charged with a violent crime is shut out, as is a person accused of a gun felony during an earlier bond (S.C. Code 17-15-15).
• GPS monitor. An ankle device may stand in for money or ride along with it (S.C. Code 17-15-35).

Whatever the type, your loved one must show up at every hearing, stay in South Carolina and behave (S.C. Code 17-15-20).

No two bonds here are set the same way. The magistrate sizes up the charge, family and work ties, finances, character, years lived locally, prior convictions and whether court dates were missed before. By law, the judge also reviews pending cases and any other bond the person is out on now (S.C. Code 17-15-30).

The top penalty for a charge hints at how steep bond might climb. Some charges seen often:

• Third-degree assault and battery: up to $500 and 30 days (S.C. Code 16-3-600(E)(2))
• Shoplifting worth $2,000 or less: up to $1,000 and 30 days (S.C. Code 16-13-110(B))
• Shoplifting above $2,000 yet under $10,000: felony, five years max
• Shoplifting at $10,000 or higher: up to ten years
• Classes of felony: the lightest, Class F, carries at most 5 years; the heaviest, Class A, reaches 30 (S.C. Code 16-1-20)
• Murder: punishable by execution or by 30 years up to life, with bond decided by a circuit judge (S.C. Code 16-3-20(A))

For one person's actual figure, dial Bond Court at 843-623-2261. Or open the county's Public Index and choose "Bond Court" in the court agency list.

The jail stands at 319 Goodale Road, Chesterfield, SC 29709. Heading over from Cheraw? Take SC 9 into town, go left at the first stoplight onto SC 102, then right at the fourth road, Edwards Road. Roughly a mile on, look left. Edwards Road turns into Goodale Road right there. Before you drive, work through this list:

1. Phone the Detention Center, 843-623-3385, with your loved one's legal name and date of birth handy.
2. Confirm the bond figure, its type and every charge tied to it.
3. Learn where staff are accepting bond right now, the hours, and the forms of payment they take.
4. Check for other holds, such as a second county's warrant, that would block release.
5. Carry a photo ID. Keep the paperwork staff give you, every page.

After the bond is delivered, state law caps the wait for release at four hours (S.C. Code 22-5-510(B)).

Bond hearings happen at the jail. Still, a few payments land at offices inside the courthouse on West Main Street. Phone ahead every time.

• Clerk of Court, 200 West Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-2574, Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. A 10 percent cash deposit, when allowed, is made here.
• Central Magistrate Court, 200 West Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-9009, Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Cash can be left with a magistrate instead of a signed pledge (S.C. Code 22-5-530).
• Town courts. Was bond set by the judge for Cheraw, Jefferson, McBee or Pageland, or for the town at the county seat? Then that court is the one to call. Our court guide lists each with its phone and address.

Questions worth asking: does this office take bond money today, which payment works, and how soon will the jail learn it was paid?

Rules on payment shift, so check on the day you go. Phone the Detention Center, 843-623-3385. Ask whether staff accept cash, cards, money orders or cashier's checks for bond, and whether a card costs extra. Ask who the payee should be on a check or money order.

• Paying with cash? Bring the precise amount.
• Have a photo ID, plus the booking or case number if you know it.
• Insist on a signed receipt. A refund later depends on it.

Traffic tickets are a separate thing. The magistrate court runs a ticket payment page that accepts only the full balance and handles fines, never bond. Ticket fines mailed in go by money order or cashier's check. Don't tuck bills inside an envelope.

A bondsman signs on for the entire bond, so the family covers only the fee. Every bondsman and runner holds a license from the South Carolina Department of Insurance (Title 38, Chapter 53). Limits they must follow:

• Price ceiling. The fee tops out at 15 percent of the bond's face value. Its floor is $100 or 10 percent, whichever is bigger. A $5,000 bond, then, means a fee from $500 to $750 (S.C. Code 38-53-170(e)).
• Installments. At least $100 down, with the plan finished within 18 months.
• Kept for good. The fee pays for the service, so it stays with the bondsman even when charges get dropped.
• No hustling. Soliciting at courts, magistrate offices or jails is barred, and so is nudging you toward a particular lawyer.
• Collateral. Car titles or other pledges go back to their owner within ten days of the bondsman's risk ending, unless a bench warrant was issued.

Look up any bondsman on the insurance license lookup before signing. To complain, contact the Department of Insurance, 1201 Main Street, Suite 1000, Columbia, SC 29201, 803-737-6160.

Bond frees a person only on the charge it was set for. Other snags to rule out:

• Out-of-county paper. A warrant from a different county or a different state can override the release.
• Two separate cases. A town charge plus a county charge means two bonds.
• Supervision trouble. People on probation or parole can face their own hold. The state's county office sits at 200 West Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-7748.
• Fresh violent or gun charge. Picked up for one while out on bond for another? State law wipes out the older bond on the spot, with a circuit court hearing set inside 30 days (S.C. Code 17-15-55(C)).
• Immigration or federal holds. Those carry separate rules, covered lower on this page.

Prior to paying, have the Detention Center at 843-623-3385 list each hold attached to the booking.

South Carolina's Constitution guarantees bail to most defendants and outlaws excessive amounts (S.C. Const. art. I, § 15). Giving due weight to the evidence, a judge can withhold it in three situations:

• a capital charge, meaning death is possible
• a charge with a possible life term
• a violent offense on the state's list, such as carjacking, kidnapping or armed robbery (S.C. Code 16-1-60)

On listed violent offenses, magistrates may still grant bond or turn it down. On murder and similar death-or-life charges, the decision belongs to a circuit judge alone.

Arguing for a high bond, or no bond, falls to the Fourth Circuit Solicitor, whose county office is at 207 West Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-479-6516. The alleged victim gets notice of the hearing and a chance to be heard there (S.C. Const. art. I, § 24).

Yes, bonds aren't locked in place. For General Sessions charges, a circuit judge may take a fresh look at a bond a magistrate or town judge set (S.C. Code 17-15-55). Release terms can also be revised after notice and a hearing (S.C. Code 17-15-50).

1. Have the defense lawyer file a motion through the Clerk of Court, 843-623-2574.
2. Collect paperwork: pay stubs, a lease or deed nearby, children or parents who rely on your loved one, and an honest budget.
3. Propose safeguards a judge would welcome, say a GPS monitor or a curfew.
4. Attend in tidy clothes. Relatives might be asked a question or two.

The Solicitor's office will respond, and the alleged victim may also speak.

A person too broke to hire counsel has the right to an appointed one (S.C. Code 17-3-10). They fill out a sworn statement about income and pay a $40 application fee. The clerk may cut or waive that fee for someone without the means (S.C. Code 17-3-30). For a minor, a parent signs and covers the fee.

• Local public defender: 101 West Main Street, Suite B, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-2286. This office belongs to the Fourth Circuit, shared with Darlington, Dillon and Marlboro counties.
• Statewide agency: South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense, 1330 Lady Street, Suite 401, Columbia, SC 29201, 803-734-1343.

Apply quickly. Counsel can push for a smaller bond, demand a preliminary hearing and ask the Solicitor about diversion such as Pretrial Intervention.

Cases tend to start at the jail and then shift to the courthouse on West Main Street. Reach out to whichever court holds the case:

• Bond Court (bond hearings), inside the Detention Center, 319 Goodale Road, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-2261
• Central Magistrate Court (smaller charges, preliminary hearings), 200 West Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-9009
• Court of General Sessions (felonies, bigger misdemeanors), through the Clerk of Court, 200 West Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-2574
• Family Court (juvenile cases), 200 West Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, Family Court desk 843-623-6301
• Cheraw Municipal Court, P.O. Box 219, Cheraw, SC 29520, 843-537-8411
• Town court at the county seat, Town Hall, 112 Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-2419
• Jefferson Municipal Court, P.O. Box 306, Jefferson, SC 29718, 843-658-7600
• McBee Municipal Court, P.O. Box 177, McBee, SC 29101, 843-335-6613
• Pageland Municipal Court, 310 West McGregor Street, Pageland, SC 29728, 843-672-6437
• Federal court, McMillan Federal Building, 401 West Evans Street, Florence, SC 29501, 843-676-3820

A cash deposit can be claimed back from the court once there's no more reason to hold it, which normally means the charges are resolved and your loved one never missed a date (S.C. Code 17-15-220). The ten percent deposit is repaid after your loved one obeys the bond's terms, though a court can subtract restitution first (S.C. Code 17-15-15). Money paid to a bondsman is spent for good.

Missing a hearing starts trouble fast:

• The judge signs a bench warrant.
• Ninety days later, the surety bond is lost to the court, unless the bondsman has delivered them back to custody (S.C. Code 38-53-70).
• A willful no-show is a crime too. For a felony, up to five years and $5,000. A misdemeanor worth a year or more risks one year and $1,000 (S.C. Code 17-15-90).

Ask for a refund at the office that received the payment, often the Clerk of Court, 843-623-2574. Ask about the timeline and what to bring.

Items your loved one had at booking wait at the Detention Center, 319 Goodale Road, Chesterfield, SC 29709. Before release day, phone 843-623-3385. Learn how unspent money on the jail account is handed back, and the window for collecting property.

Picking up for someone still locked up? Staff may want a signed note from them first, so ask. Show photo ID at pickup. For how deposits and refunds commonly go, see our inmate money page.

Federal prosecutions from this area are filed in the Florence Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Its clerk's office sits in the McMillan Federal Building, 401 West Evans Street, Florence, SC 29501, 843-676-3820.

1. On the first federal court day, a magistrate judge weighs release against a cell until trial at what's called a detention hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. The defense can seek a delay of as long as five days. The prosecutor can seek three.
3. A federal defendant awaiting trial stays in Marshals custody. Contact the Florence office: 401 West Evans Street, Suite 341, Florence, SC 29501, 843-662-0750. Call to learn which jail has them.
4. Once sentenced to prison, they show up on the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Bond on a state charge at Goodale Road has no effect on a federal case.

No. Posting state bond won't lift a hold placed by immigration officers. Here's the sequence:

1. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) files paperwork called Form I-247A, a detainer.
2. The jail can then keep your loved one up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, giving ICE time to arrive (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. A South Carolina jail has 72 hours to verify lawful presence for each new criminal booking. Any unlawful presence must be reported to Homeland Security (S.C. Code 23-3-1100).
4. Judges setting bond must also consider unlawful presence along with flight risk (S.C. Code 22-5-510(D)(4)).
5. ICE's South Carolina office: 3950 Faber Place Drive, North Charleston, SC 29405, 843-746-9800.
6. Use the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Type the person's alien registration number (A-number). Lacking that, search by name and the nation the person was born in.

Ninety days or fewer usually stays local, in the county jail (S.C. Code 24-3-30). Anything longer places your loved one with the South Carolina Department of Corrections, which assigns the facility, occasionally a county jail under contract (S.C. Code 24-3-20).

• New arrivals begin at reception and evaluation, a sorting stage. Family can't visit in person then, unless the stage drags past 30 days.
• Next comes a move to an assigned prison.
• The state inmate search shows state prisoners as of the last midnight. County jail inmates won't appear there.
• Main office: 4444 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210, 803-896-8500.
• Our South Carolina state prisons page explains how visiting and letters work prison by prison.

Under 18 means Family Court, though 17-year-olds can land in adult court. For them, felonies ranked Class A through Class D, plus felonies that could mean 15 or more years behind bars, count as adult cases (S.C. Code 63-19-20(1)).

• Adult jail time for a child is capped at six hours, and kids 10 or younger may never be locked up (S.C. Code 63-19-820).
• A Family Court judge must hear whether to keep holding the child within 48 hours, skipping weekends and holidays (S.C. Code 63-19-830).
• The state's Juvenile Detention Complex in Columbia takes youths who are held: 1725 Shivers Road, Columbia, SC 29210, visitation line 803-896-9440.
• After a hearing, a judge may send serious-felony cases against youths aged 14 to 16 up to General Sessions (S.C. Code 63-19-1210).

Parents can reach the local Department of Juvenile Justice office at 200 West Main Street, Chesterfield, SC 29709, 843-623-2378.