South Dakota sees increase in juvenile diversion program success Monday, January 27, 2020
Mitchell Daily Republic
More at-risk South Dakota youth successfully completed diversion programs in 2019 than in any other year since juvenile justice reforms went into effect, according to a report issued last week.
The report is the fourth issued since the formation of the South Dakota Juvenile Justice Oversight Council in 2015, when the state passed the Juvenile Justice Public Safety Improvement Act, which was aimed at finding community-based alternatives to Department of Corrections supervision for minors.
“We’ve really seen a lot of utilization of our diversion programming,” Greg Sattizahn, chairman of the oversight council and state court administrator for the South Dakota Unified Judicial System, told The Daily Republic on Friday. “That means that those kids that first have contact with the criminal justice system, we’re connecting them to services, we’re keeping them out of creating a formal court record and we’re seeing some good results with that.”