Domestic violence suspects avoid jailtime through pretrial program

Rick Brundrett of The (Columbia, S.C.) State studied records from pretrial intervention programs to find that South Carolina "prosecutors accepted more than 1,800 suspects accused of criminal domestic violence into a program that allows their charges to be dropped over the past five years." Violent offenders aren't supposed to be eligible for the program, but a loophole in state law permits those charged with domestic violence to enter. "Until last year, even the most serious criminal domestic violence charge - criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature - was not classified as violent. That meant suspects charged with the crime for the first time also could be admitted into PTI."