State’s Attorney, public defender say fuller staffing and pretrial services could cut jail population

Officials from Pennington County’s criminal justice system told the Board of Commissioners on July 23 that staffing shortages in both the State’s Attorney’s Office and the public defender’s office, delayed case processing and the absence of pretrial services are contributing to a large county jail population.

“Fully staffing the State’s Attorney's Office is going to positively impact your jail population,” State’s Attorney Laura Retzel told commissioners. Retzel said many inmates are housed while awaiting progress through the judicial process and cited paperwork and scheduling delays that extend stays. She described an example of an arrested veteran whose court‑appointed attorney paperwork was delayed, prolonging his time in custody while the court process caught up.

Retzel and Public Defender Eric Witcher both argued that faster case processing, adequate staffing and pretrial supervision could reduce the number of people in the jail who are not serving sentences. “There’s a big part of the people in your jail that need to be there … but the population that we could really make a positive impact on are … the low bond, non compliant, not coming back to court population,” Retzel said. She also noted discovery delays, including large volumes of body‑worn camera footage that take staff time to process.

Witcher said the county’s caseload per attorney is significantly above national and regional benchmarks, citing figures presented at the meeting: Colorado’s average felony caseload per attorney is about 91, while Pennington County’s felony‑division attorneys are carrying roughly 220 cases per attorney; misdemeanor workloads exceed 1,000 cases per attorney in his office compared with an NDAA benchmark of 400. “We are so dramatically understaffed,” Witcher said.

Both offices urged commissioners to consider investments that could improve throughput, including piloting pretrial services and adult diversion programs. Retzel said the county has been selected as a pilot county for pretrial services in South Dakota should the legislature provide funding; both she and Witcher asked for state support to staff those programs.

Sheriff’s Office representatives and commissioners requested more granular data showing the jail population breakdown (people detained for violent offenses, people serving sentences, people detained on technical violations or inability to make cash bond, etc.). Chief Deputy Mark Hughes said staff could prepare charts and a jail population “pie chart” showing categories of inmates and how many are in custody for each reason; commissioners asked that those charts be produced for the Aug. 19 meeting.

No formal policy decision was made; commissioners asked the State’s Attorney, the public defender and sheriff’s staff to provide updated caseload and population breakdowns, and to return with proposals and cost estimates for pretrial services or other interventions that might reduce jail bed demand.