2016 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 44 - Health
CHAPTER 23 - PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO BOTH MENTALLY ILL PERSONS AND PERSONS OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES
Section 44-23-1150. Sexual misconduct with an inmate, patient, or offender.

(A) As used in this section:

(1) "Actor" means an employee, volunteer, agent, or contractor of a public entity that has statutory or contractual responsibility for inmates or patients confined in a prison, jail, or mental health facility. Actor includes individuals who supervise inmate labor details outside of an institution or who have supervisory responsibility for offenders on parole, probation, or other community supervision programs.

(2) "Victim" means an inmate or patient who is confined in or lawfully or unlawfully absent from a prison, jail, or mental health facility, or who is an offender on parole, probation, or other community supervision programs. A victim is not capable of providing consent for sexual intercourse or sexual contact with an actor.

(B) An actor is guilty of sexual misconduct when the actor, knowing that the victim is an inmate, offender, or patient voluntarily engages with the victim in an act of sexual intercourse, whether vaginal, oral, or anal, or other sexual contact for the purpose of sexual gratification.

(C)(1) When the sexual misconduct involves an act of sexual intercourse, whether vaginal, oral, or anal, the actor is guilty of the felony of sexual misconduct, first degree and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned for not more than ten years.

(2) When the sexual misconduct does not involve sexual intercourse but involves other sexual contact which is engaged in for sexual gratification, the actor is guilty of the felony of sexual misconduct, second degree and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned for not more than five years. The term sexual contact, as used in this subsection, refers to an intrusion of any part of a person's body or of any object into the "intimate parts", as defined in Section 16-3-651(d), of another person's body, or to the fondling of the "intimate parts" of another person's body, which is done in a manner not required by professional duties, but instead is done to demonstrate affection, sexually stimulate that person or another person, or harass that person.

(D) A person who knowingly or wilfully submits inaccurate or untruthful information concerning sexual misconduct as defined in this section is guilty of the misdemeanor of falsely reporting sexual misconduct and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned for not more than one year.

(E) A person who has knowledge of sexual misconduct who has received information in the person's professional capacity and fails to report it to the appropriate law enforcement authority, or a person who threatens or attempts to intimidate a witness is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not more then five hundred dollars or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 32-1030; 1952 (47) 2042; 1960 (51) 1602; 1993 Act No. 184, Section 71; 1997 Act No. 136, Section 9; 2001 Act No. 68, Section 1, eff July 11, 2001.

Editor's Note

2001 Act No. 68, Section 2, provides, in pertinent part, as follows:

"A person arrested, charged, or indicted under the provision of law amended by this act must be tried and sentenced as provided by the law in force at the time of the commission of the offense."

Effect of Amendment

The 2001 amendment rewrote this section.