COLUMBIA--South Carolina will be able to prosecute more criminal domestic violence cases in the Pee Dee with the help of a $900,000 federal grant, Attorney General Henry McMaster said Monday.

McMaster said he will hire three new prosecutors, who will help train and work with a team of volunteer attorneys working throughout Chesterfield, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Marion, Marlboro and Williamsburg counties.

Right now, he has only one prosecutor in his office coordinating criminal domestic violence caseloads for the entire state.

The federal money was earmarked for a rural area where many cases are dropped because a prosecutor is not available, McMaster said.

"You can pass all the laws in the world, enhancing the penalties and adding new methods and approaches ... but if you don't have a prosecutor in the courtroom, then the main link in the chain in missing," McMaster said.

People need to understand there are consequences and they will be held accountable for committing a crime, he said.

"When the would-be batterers realize that there is punishment that will be applied to their acts, then you have a deterrent," he said.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who helped secure the cash for the next two years, said domestic violence is pervasive across all social-economic areas but "very seldom do we look at rural counties for this kind of effort."

McMaster hopes to use the federal money to expand an innovative court system in Lexington County and the city of Columbia that only handles domestic violence crimes.

With its team of judges, investigators, victim advocates and a mental health worker, the novel court system is designed to rehabilitate defendants and increase victim safety.