Kayla Essem prayed she’d get arrested.
The 32-year-old from Sioux Falls said she had been on and off drugs since she was in high school — fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and meth. Addiction was the only thing she was destined for, she believed, after seeing family members struggle.
Years of drug use frayed her self-confidence and robbed her of stability. She and her partner split, so she saw her two children less often. She fell into an abusive relationship and overdosed in 2024.
Maybe jail would be enough to “scare me straight,” she thought, to loosen the control drugs had on her life.
It was, and it wasn’t. Beyond a jail stay, she ultimately found help in a program that’s available in some South Dakota counties.
Essem was at a city park in June 2025 when a police officer stopped her and asked to search her purse. She confessed she had drugs in it. She faced a felony charge for meth possession and a misdemeanor charge for drug paraphernalia, with a possibility of years in prison and thousands in fines.
After a night in the Minnehaha County Jail, Essem said she still craved meth. While on bail, she placed herself into an inpatient treatment center at Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services in Yankton and went through crippling withdrawal.
When she returned home a month and a half after her arrest, Essem’s attorney told her to call the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney’s Office. Becky Brown, the adult diversion coordinator, had an offer: get the charges dropped by enrolling in and completing the county’s adult diversion program.
Minnehaha’s program is one of at least four in the state, including Pennington, Yankton and Brookings counties. The total number is unknown because of a lack of central coordination. While officials say the programs are effective, they’re difficult to expand within those existing counties and to additional counties since the state doesn’t support it with funding like it does for youth diversion.
The programs are run by each county’s state’s attorney and offer people accused of crimes an opportunity to take responsibility for their actions while avoiding jail or prison time. Eligibility for the programs varies by county, from marijuana and underage alcohol crimes in Brookings County to first-time, nonviolent crimes in Minnehaha County, and beyond that to some violent crimes in Pennington County when victims consent and other conditions are met. Program graduates can get their case expunged if they remain arrest-free for 13 months, according to state law.
Essem took the offer. It was a challenge “to be better, to do better,” she said.
She graduated in March, has a job handling packages at a distribution center in Sioux Falls and said she is 13 months sober. The charges can be expunged from her record in October.
“Diversion helped me grow in a way that made me realize what I want and put boundaries up for myself,” Essem said.
The diversion program Essem completed has been offered in Minnehaha County since 2021 and primarily serves young adults. State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar said he wanted to have an impact on people who’ve committed their first criminal offenses.
“It’s really having the opportunity to change lives early on and really give people a purpose in life that’s free from substance abuse where they can be productive members of our community,” Haggar said.
State’s attorneys see impact, cost savings
Brookings County, the home of South Dakota State University, has had an adult diversion program since 2019, focusing on people of college age who are charged for underage drinking. The county added marijuana-related offenses in 2020.
The program requires 10 hours of community service and a three-hour class through Brookings Behavioral Health. Brookings participants pay the $120 cost so the program doesn’t involve taxpayer funds, said State’s Attorney Dan Nelson. Yankton has similar requirements and requires participants to pay the $75 fee, unless they can’t afford it.
You can read the full article at South Dakota Searchlight.