DIVERSION PROGRAMS FOR YOUTH OFFENDERS INCREASE STATEWIDE AFTER BOOST TO COUNTY FUNDING

PIERRE, S.D. (John Hult / South Dakota Searchlight) – A 2023 bill that paved the way for higher payments to counties that keep kids out of the justice system has increased the number of diversion offers from prosecutors across South Dakota.

That was among the takeaways from an annual juvenile justice report presented recently to the state’s Juvenile Justice Oversight Council.

Senate Bill 5, passed in 2023, extended the lifespan of the council, a group created in 2015 alongside a sweeping juvenile justice reform package that aimed to reduce the number of youth in secure detention. The reforms were meant to avoid the harms associated with incarceration for children and offer more fiscally responsible alternatives. Locking up children costs considerably more than probation supervision or in-community programming.

The bill also empowered the council to make adjustments to things like the amount of money paid per kid for diversion programs. The council recommended offering $750 to counties for each successful diversion, a $500 increase. The Department of Corrections (DOC) sponsored a successful bill to boost that funding during the 2024 session.

In the past nine years, counties have collected $4.2 million in incentives from the state.

Avoiding a judge

Children are not charged with crimes in the juvenile justice system, but rather “adjudicated” for the alleged commission of a criminal act. With diversion programs, prosecutors use a report from law enforcement for criminal behavior as the starting point for a set of actions an accused child must take to avoid seeing the incident move through a formal adjudication.

A child charged with alcohol consumption, for example, might be asked to complete a substance abuse evaluation and to check in with the prosecutor’s office monthly while maintaining good behavior for a few months. If the child satisfies the diversion requirements, their case will be closed without them ever seeing a judge.

According to the annual report presented to the oversight council on Tuesday, diversion programming increased for the most common juvenile infractions in 2024.

The last fiscal year “saw two times as many kids getting diversion opportunities from where we started” with the reforms nearly 10 years ago, according to Kristi Bunkers, an oversight council member who leads the DOC’s juvenile justice programming.

Those opportunities translate into better long-term outcomes for troubled youth, Bunkers told the oversight group.

“The research continues to come out in support of diversion,” she said. “It’s a really promising window of opportunity for the system to get it right.”

About 82% of the 2,439 kids offered diversion programming last year were successful, the annual report says. The year before that, there were 2,180 diversions, and just over 83% were successful.

Diversions for alcohol and drugs, crimes against property and persons, sex offenses and tobacco use increased in 2024, according to the report.

Truancy, however, saw fewer diversions than in 2023, down to 270 from 313 in 2023. There were 694 and 565 in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Homeschooling concerns with truancy

David Knoff, a First Circuit judge and oversight council member, said the council’s truancy subgroup met three or four times this year to discuss the issue. Truancy is when a kid is chronically absent from school. Knoff was among the council members to note that truancy cases often suggest deeper issues in a child’s home life.

A child has often missed weeks or months of school by the time a case lands in court, Knoff said, so the subgroup was focused on finding out ways to intervene sooner. The Department of Social Services’ Division of Behavioral Health offers programming to kids and families, serving 4,775 youth in individual or family sessions in 2024.

“How do we make the family aware of how they can tap into those resources, or school districts, how they can get those to the families and get them tapped in to see that they can qualify and get the counseling they need to find out what kind of issues are going on within the homes,” Knoff said.

Knoff also talked about the possibility that truancy cases have been affected by a 2021 law making it easier for parents to pull their children from school and place them in “alternative instruction” such as online schooling or homeschooling.

The law change struck down things like testing requirements and instruction time requirements, and removed a clause that allowed the state’s Department of Education to investigate situations where there’s concern a child might not be getting the instruction they’re required to under state law.

If a child is pulled from school for in-home instruction, Knoff said, “then there is no truancy.”

Knoff said he and others on the council are concerned that some students’ attendance and participation have suffered in certain homeschooling situations.

“It’s not that homeschooling itself is the problem,” Knoff said. “It’s certain parents who maybe don’t have the ability or resources to be able to effectively homeschool, and they can just pull their kid out of school, which has a lot of long-term effects.”

Council member Tiffany Wolfgang of the DSS will leave state government, and the council, at the end of the year after nearly three decades in various social service roles. Wolfgang told the council that as valuable as state-level reports and oversight can be, local school districts and community leaders are critical to crafting the approach to things like truancy.

“Truancy really is a local, local issue in really, truly needing to get the players at the local level in a room together, communicating and talking about what resources we have,” Wolfgang said. “How do we want to address truancy in this community and who needs to talk to whom?”

 

RESTORING FADED MEMORIES:  VOLUNTEERS LABOR TO REFURBISH HISTORICAL MARKERS ACROSS SOUTH DAKOTA

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Makenzie Huber / South Dakota Searchlight) – Jim A. Carlson steadies his hand as he balances on a ladder in Falls Park, concentrating as he paints the raised lettering on a cast aluminum historical marker.

The marker explains how the region earned its “Siouxland” nickname from 20th century author Frederick Manfred. After the marker was erected in 2000, it became discolored and faded within a decade.

Carlson, who’s 84, has volunteered hundreds of hours over the past two summers to refurbish historical markers throughout the Sioux Falls area. So far, he’s touched up 65.

It takes about seven hours to repaint both sides of one sign, he estimates. He cleans and preps it, repaints the base, paints the raised lettering with shimmering gold, and sprays a protectant over the work.

Carlson wipes his hands on a handkerchief when he’s done, though the green and gold has largely dried on his fingertips and nails by then. He loads his ladder, supplies and $12 worth of paint into his red 1998 Ford Ranger pickup and drives to the next sign.

Hundreds of markers statewide

Since 1950, the South Dakota State Historical Society has worked with local sponsors to post over 700 signs memorializing historic events, places and people across the state. Hundreds more have been erected by local organizations. The signs are a draw for tourists curious about South Dakota’s past and an access point to educate residents about state history.

But South Dakota’s harsh winters and blazing summer sun take a toll on the markers, fading and discoloring the signs to the point of illegibility.

The state does not provide funding for the markers. Local organizations such as the Minnehaha County Historical Society pay for the maintenance, and some rely on volunteers including Carlson to do the work.

That can be a difficult task for some local groups. It can cost between $1,300 and $1,700 to have a sign professionally refurbished.

In Vermillion, a resident noticed a historical marker in poor shape. He called several organizations to find out how to refurbish it. He eventually learned that the local Rotary Club was the original sponsor and is responsible for maintaining it.

But the club said it can’t spare the money to refurbish it, so the resident is paying for part of the effort out-of-pocket with a contribution from the club. The Clay County Historic Preservation Commission will consider paying the rest of the money at its December meeting, said Tim Schreiner, commission chair.

State role discussed

The state could play a larger role in communicating with local governments and organizations when a sign is in need of refurbishment, Schreiner said.

Tony Venhuizen, a legislator from Sioux Falls and president of the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation, has helped place several gubernatorial history signs in South Dakota. The foundation is the fundraising arm of the historical society.

Venhuizen said the volunteers who maintain historical markers are doing a great service.

“As a history enthusiast myself, I appreciate the people who value this and put their time and effort into it,” he said.

The foundation is fundraising $4 million to refurbish the state history museum at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Once that’s completed, Venhuizen said, a fund to help local organizations maintain or refurbish historical signs would be a “great idea to consider at some point.”

“You don’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been,” Venhuizen said. “The neat thing about the markers is you can be in a South Dakota town big or small, you can be driving along a road in the middle of nowhere, and there’s history everywhere.”

In some areas, awareness of local responsibility for the signs has faded. Richard Rubel, vice chairman of the Gregory County Historical Society, said he didn’t know local organizations such as his were responsible for maintaining the markers.

Why it matters

Carlson estimates he’s saved the Minnehaha County Historical Society about $50,000 by refurbishing the signs himself.

He finished his last sign at Falls Park in October. He plans to pick up his work again next spring in downtown Sioux Falls — hopefully with some more volunteers.

Last summer, curious park visitors stopped and watched him as he worked on the signs. Tourists from places as far flung as Asia asked him what he was doing, while others asked about the importance of the history explained on the signs.

“I hope they took more time to read those signs,” Carlson said, “and appreciate our history.”

Schreiner said the signs are an opportunity to learn South Dakota history that’s not always taught in schools or widely known in the state.

“In terms of inspiring somebody or teaching your kids,” Schreiner said, “those quirky little things that inform your sense of where you live are golden.”

 

PROCESSING WILD GAME STILL A CHALLENGE FOR SOUTH DAKOTA HUNTERS

PIEDMONT, S.D. (Bart Pfankuch / South Dakota News Watch) – Earlier this year, well before big-game hunting season began in South Dakota, Josh Clark invested time and money into expanding his wild-game processing capabilities to take advantage of high demand for the service.

As the number of commercial and self-employed meat cutters willing to process wild game in South Dakota has dwindled, Clark saw an opportunity in 2024 to profit off the trend at Cutting Edge Meat Market in Piedmont, where he is the manager.

Prior to hunting season, he added another skinning station, expanded capacity to hang and move animals and created more refrigeration space. He also did some summer advertising to let hunters know he is still taking in deer, elk and other large animal carcasses for full-service processing into steak, burgers and sausages.

“I don’t know if it’s just the lack of processors still out there, but we’re up 30% to 40% over last year in terms of animal drop-offs,” Clark told News Watch last week. “We’re slammed right now.”

Clark said he recently contacted several other West River meat shops and found that no one he spoke to is taking in whole deer or other game for processing.

Butchers who still take full deer carcasses said other processors who no longer take wild game or require it to be deboned first may be facing worker shortages, have higher expenses that cut into profitability or simply do not want the hassle of dealing with wild game processing that often occurs one customer with one animal at a time and creates a mad rush of business each fall.

The month of November – the heart of the deer hunting season in South Dakota – is always busy for butchers who process wild game, as hunters bring in tens of thousands of deer and antelope shot with rifles or bow and arrow. In 2023, South Dakota hunters killed about 49,000 deer, roughly 2,800 antelope and 114 elk, according to the state.

Clark said prior News Watch coverage of the processor shortage generated even more business for him, including from Custer State Park, where officials shipped him some buffaloes for processing after culling park animals after the annual Buffalo Roundup.

South Dakota butchers exiting wild game market

Some butcher shops have closed or shifted focus away from wild game, while others no longer take any game animals, and a few will only process wild meat that is already skinned and deboned by the customer.

Whereas commercial livestock producers schedule delivery of animals to be slaughtered and butchered during normal work hours and with several animals at once, big game hunters usually arrive at butcher shops with one or two animals at whatever time of day they happen to make a kill.

Paul Sorum, co-owner of Renner Corner Meats, about 10 miles north of Sioux Falls, said his shop usually processes about 1,000 deer and other big-game carcasses a year. Sorum said he feels a strong commitment to helping hunters have a place to take full carcasses. But he also wants to continue taking whole animals as a way to maintain the South Dakota hunting economy and to uphold conservation goals.

“If it weren’t for the hunters, we’d have an overabundance of deer that are not easy on crops, not to mention the damage they do to vehicles (when struck),” he said.

The shortage of wild-game processors has been a boon to Sorum’s bottom line in the fall. He’s now taking in a lot of deer from western Minnesota and has had elk, moose, caribou, bear and antelope shipped in from other states for processing in Renner.

One concern is that if hunters who lack the skills or equipment to skin, quarter and debone carcasses on their own can’t find a processor willing to take a whole carcass, the animals could be dumped in the garbage or left to rot in the field. Some hunters might choose to give up hunting if they know in advance they won’t be able to get a full animal carcass processed.

“The deer hunters, they need a place to take their animals to be processed correctly and to know they’re going to get a great product, so we still provide that service because there’s not that many of us out there,” Sorum said. “It’s a busy time, and it’s difficult work, but I have a great staff and we get through it.”

Hunters can donate animals to charity

Hunters who want to donate the meat from a deer or antelope to charitable food pantries across the state can work with South Dakota Sportsmen Against Hunger. Under the program, hunters with animals can contact one of roughly two dozen butchers in South Dakota and drop off an animal carcass or deboned meat for full processing. In most cases, the participating butcher shops assume the cost of processing female animals, while donating a buck typically results in the hunter paying the processing fee.

Some of the butchers enrolled in the program require that the animal be skinned and deboned before being dropped off for processing, and the program does nothing to help hunters who want to eat the wild game meat from animals they have killed.

The wild game processing industry is not overseen or regulated by the state Game, Fish & Parks Department, which manages state hunting seasons, though butcher shops are subject to regular inspection by state and federal regulators. GFP spokesman Nick Harrington sent an email to News Watch in 2023 saying the department “is currently not seeing a lack of game processors acting as a barrier to hunters participating in the sport.”

“Conversely, applications for many big game seasons including deer and elk are either holding steady or gradually rising each year,” Harrington wrote. “There are some big-game hunters who utilize processors, while others process themselves. This is each individual hunter’s choice and personal preference.”

Home-based butchers help fill the need

The commercial butcher shops that handle wild game have long been bolstered by a network of small, home-based meat processors who take animals killed in the fall. However, those processors are also dropping out of the industry or slowing down due to age, increasing volumes or burnout.

But some home-based butchers continue to provide the service of processing wild game from carcass to usable meat portions wrapped in butcher paper, though they often can only be found through word-of-mouth connections.

Rex Roseland and his wife, Cheryl, have processed wild game at their home north of Rapid City for decades, but they’ve seen demand for processing rise in recent years.

“When you get swamped, it just takes time to get caught up,” Rex Roseland told News Watch in 2023. “We get a lot of people from previous years, and they keep coming back. But every year it seems like we pick up more people.”

Cheryl Roseland said they enjoy the work and want to help hunters out, but it’s getting harder to handle the increasing flow of animals being brought in.

“We’ve heard from people who are saying, ‘Help us because we can’t find anyplace that will take it,’” she said. “But the thing is, while we can do it, do we have room to add another animal? We will take overflow when we can, but we’re overflowing ourselves out here.”