Within one year each officer must attend training for Certification (Law Enforcement Class II Certification) at the SCCJA (South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy) in Columbia, SC for three weeks.

Each officer must complete a minimum of twenty-four hours of training every year and recertify every three years with SCCJA. Recertification is based on completion of required in-service training each year.

The Training Lieutenant is part of the Professional Standards Unit of the Sheriff's Office and participates in recruiting, testing, and hiring new officers. To assure quality and professional standards, each new officer must file a detailed application and provide numerous required documents, including high school diploma, picture, birth certificate, military DD214, SC driver's license, SS card, etc. Interviews, background investigation, criminal history check, driving record check, polygraph test, medical examination and drug testing are part of the standards required.

Detention Medical Unit

A Medical Service Coordinator who is an RN heads the Detention Center Medical Unit. Two RN's, one Medical Officer/LPN, and a Medical Records Clerk assist him. The medical unit has a contract doctor, contract dentist, and dental assistant who provide services on referral from the coordinator. Staff from the Catawba Mental Health provides weekly mental health services.

Emergency, necessary and maintenance type health care is provided as required by state standards. Daily medication preparation and passing, 14-day physicals as required by state standards, medical screening reviews from intake, daily sick call, and lots of documentation for medical records occupies the staff's time. The medical unit provides in house staff services such as physicals for the hiring process and flu shots each year. They respond to all staff injuries and provide service for minor ones.

Detention Operations Unit

The Detention Center Operations Unit is headed up by an operations Sergeant who is assisted by an Inmate Service Officer. Incoming and outgoing mail, commissary, inmate uniforms, inmate funds and accounts, boarding and cleaning supplies, and indigent inmates' hygiene supplies are all part of the operations unit. State inmate workers for in house use are recruited and supervised by this unit.

Detention Programs Unit

The Detention Center Programs Unit is headed up by a Programs Manager and assisted by a contract Inmate Services Person (Part time). Three volunteer Chaplains also assist him. The programs unit recruits, trains, and oversees over one-hundred volunteers who provide inmate services on a daily basis, such as life skill instructor, bible studies, religious services and programs, narcotics anonymous, alcoholic anonymous, educational, and more.

The Detention Center is located at the Moss Justice Center and is a 256-bed direct supervision facility that opened in March of 1995. The Detention Center is charged with holding individuals who have been arrested by various law enforcement agencies in York County and held until they post bond or are ordered released by a court or transferred to a state institution after court sentencing. The detention center also houses sentenced females for York County who are serving sentences less than 90 days (except for Family Court cases) and 12 beds are allotted for this. The Detention Center also houses federal inmates for the US Marshal Service under an agreement that provides compensation to the county.

Mission Statement for The Detention Division

The York County Detention Center is responsible for the incarceration of individuals who are awaiting trial and also individuals who are serving a prison term in York County.

To meet this responsibility, the York County Detention Center will maintain a positive atmosphere for both incarcerated individuals and staff through the provision of:

• A safe and secure environment for inmates and staff.
• A facility that is cost effective.
• A professionally trained staff.
• Positive and safe physical surroundings.
• A variety of well-balanced programs that are conducive to appropriate inmate behavior.
• A system to provide for the nutritional and physical well being of the inmate population.

It is the intention of the York County Detention Center that inmates shall leave the facility no worse physically, emotionally, or psychologically than when they entered.

The York County Detention Center is committed to the operation of a facility that will meet state standards and for the preservation of basic human rights of the inmate population by the Constitution of the United States of America.