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SDPB Radio Coverage of the South Dakota Legislature. See all coverage and find links to audio and video streams live from the Capitol at www.sdpb.org/statehouse

Governor proposes criminal justice reform

The criminal justice system in South Dakota might be seeing some changes this summer. Governor Dennis Daugaard and fellow lawmakers submitted legislation to the state Senate following his state of the state address Tuesday in Pierre. The South Dakota Public Safety Improvement Act proposes solutions for South Dakota’s growing prison population problem. The act combines programs that have worked in other states, like Hawaii’s HOPE program, and tries to lower the prison population by offering alternative courts and ways for offenders to lower their sentences. Daugaard says he’s learned a lot from the criminal justice task force findings.
 
“I remember when I came as a new state senator, I wanted to demonstrate a concern for public safety and one way to demonstrate that was to increase sentences for crime. I want to show that I have no patience for crime. One way to demonstrate that is to vote for sentences: increased sentences, mandatory minimums. Intuitively, I think we all believed that doing that would increase public safety. It just makes sense. Again, lock more bad guys up for longer periods of time, less crime. It doesn’t work,” Daugaard says.
 
Daugaard says the proposed act focuses sending violent, chronic and career offenders to prison while keeping nonviolent offenders accountable in other ways.