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Codington County state's attorney outlines diversion funding and warns of state crime lab delays
Summary
State's Attorney Allison updated the board on juvenile and adult diversion programs, opioid response efforts and widespread delays at the South Dakota state crime lab that are affecting prosecutions.
Allison, the Codington County State's Attorney, told the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday that the office is continuing work on juvenile diversion cases tied to the JDAI grant and expects to receive roughly the same funding this year as last year’s award of $237,000.
“Allison” (State's Attorney) reported: “My office as well as our community thanks them for their service over the holiday. It was a successful holiday with not not a ton of incidents that would, cause my office to be concerned. We're currently working through calculating the number of successful juvenile diversion cases for the j d I JDAI grant. Carrie from my office is working with Lewis Canfield. As you'll remember, we received $237,000 last year as a result of our successful diversion cases.”
Allison said the office also has stood up an adult diversion program that began July 1 and an opioid overdose response team in partnership with Emily's Hope; she said the county participates in the Beacon Center’s sexual assault response team. She described the adult diversion work as “a slow work in progress” but said officials hope to fully implement it within weeks and that diversion is part of an effort “to reduce long term jail stays.”
On forensic testing, Allison warned of substantial statewide backlogs. “The state crime lab is a mess, if I'm being frank. Our fees for laboratory testing went up as of July 1. They're not terribly more expensive, but they are more expensive than they were previously. Our turnaround time on a standard alcohol DUI is approximately 4 to 6 weeks for blood tests. Our turnaround time for a standard drug DUI is close to 6 months. Testing substances that we need to try cases on is about 3 to 4 months right now.”
She explained statutory limits that complicate outsourcing testing: South Dakota law allows foundation for evidence from the state lab to be laid by affidavit, but not for out-of-state laboratories, which would require live testimony from out-of-state lab personnel and substantially higher costs.
Commissioner Gable asked whether the county is tracking average jail length of stay; Allison said Brad (not identified in the transcript) is tracking that and noted that some long-term detainees were awaiting competency restoration beds or psychosexual evaluations, with one person reported to have been in custody about 200 days. Allison said the office is attempting to complete competency-related matters within five months where possible to reduce liability and jail time.
No formal action was taken; the presentation was a monthly report to the board. Allison provided a contact number for follow-up and said she will continue to monitor case law from the South Dakota Supreme Court and coordinate with law enforcement.
