Debbie Depra Curtis - Department of Crime Victim Compensation (DCVC) Updates

 BIO:

Debbie Curtis, Deputy Director for the Department of Crime Victim Compensation (DCVC), will provide information regarding updates within the agency, discuss issues affecting compensation today, and what this means for DCVC.  In the latter half of the workshop, she will engage the audience in a Q & A session about services to crime victims.

Debbie was born and raised in New York but has called South Carolina “home” since 1990.  She began her career in the criminal justice system as a paralegal for the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.  In 1992, Debbie went to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department under a VOCA grant and worked as a child abuse victim advocate.  In 1996 she returned to the Richland County Solicitor’s Office to work as a victim advocate/paralegal in a prosecution unit that specialized in child abuse cases.  In 1999, she joined the S.C. Prosecution Coordination Commission as a victim advocate.  The opportunity arose in April 2000 to work in the Office of the Governor when she was appointed by Governor Jim Hodges as the Crime Victims’ Ombudsman.  In 2002, she was reappointed by Governor Mark Sanford and remained the Crime Victims’ Ombudsman until 2004. In October 2011, after being a stay at home mom for several years, Debbie returned to work as a paralegal with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel in the SC Judicial Department before she was appointed to the position of Crime Victims’ Ombudsman again by Governor Nikki Haley. In November 2013, Debbie left her position with the Governor’s Office and became the Director of the Office of Victim Services for the SC Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. She worked there until September 2021 when she accepted a job as Deputy Director for the Department of Crime Victim Compensation in the Crime Victim Services Division of the SC Attorney General’s Office.

 Debbie is happily married and has one daughter.