Comment on State: Local options needed for juvenile offenders

State: Local options needed for juvenile offenders

In his circuit's sparsely populated counties, juveniles may re-offend because they can't easily access local services — ranging from addiction programs to mental health treatment — so Myren says he's forced to put them into the custody of the state Department of Corrections. Gov. Dennis Daugaard's spending plan for the upcoming budget cycle puts $3.2 million toward enacting the changes the Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Initiative Work Group outlined to help keep juveniles in their homes and reduce South Dakota's startlingly high rate of adolescents in state-sponsored care — 385 per 100,000 youth, the second-highest rate in the nation in 2011. Seventy-five percent of juveniles in South Dakota are committed for misdemeanors and other minor violations, according to the findings of the group, which included lawmakers, judges, and representatives from the governor's office and corrections department. Some dangerous juvenile offenders will always need to be under state supervision, Department of Corrections Secretary Denny Kaemingk said, but weeding out low-level offenders would help both the state and the adolescents.

 

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