South Dakota will expand a specialty program for people facing drug charges, a move spurred by a decision last year to lessen the penalties for drug use.
The state will also pilot a program meant to keep a closer eye on people serving probation sentences, South Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Jensen said Wednesday during his State of the Judiciary message to lawmakers.
Until last year’s vote to change it, South Dakota’s ingestion law was the only one in the nation to explicitly allow felony penalties for drug use alone. Since the new law took effect in July, first- and second-offense ingestion of a controlled substance is a misdemeanor, punishable by jail time and a fine.
The law change directed the court system to lean on the HOPE program as an option for monitoring people charged with drug use in the state. Under the terms of that program, which originated in Hawaii, participants call a number each day to find out if they’ll need to take a drug test. Those who fail to come when called or fail their test are jailed.
At the time Gov. Larry Rhoden signed the bill into law, however, South Dakota had used the program sparingly, and only for people facing felony charges.
The state’s court system is “in the process of expanding HOPE probation to misdemeanor cases,” Jensen told lawmakers.
The Unified Judicial System does not intend to ask for additional funds from lawmakers just yet, Jensen said, although the expansion will require oversight at the state level.
It will also require buy-in from county leaders, who would administer the program.
Currently, all but a handful of South Dakota’s 66 counties use the 24-7 sobriety program, which typically asks participants to prove their sobriety with daily breath tests for alcohol or thrice-weekly tests for drug use.
Separately, the state has specialty drug courts, which aim to help addicted people who’ve pleaded guilty to felony charges stay sober through incentives and weekly, support-group style meet-ups with judges and the court’s other participants.
“HOPE probation has the most potential in rural counties, where monitoring services such as 24-7 and specialty courts are scarce,” Jensen said.
Sen. Tamara Grove, R-Lower Brule, was the sponsor of last year’s ingestion bill. She said after the speech that she was pleased to hear the chief justice commit to expanding HOPE probation.
“The reason why I even brought the bill was because of what he said on the floor about the success of drug courts in general,” Grove said. “I worked a lot with those in Lower Brule, so I had a passion for that.”
You can read the full article at South Dakota Searchlight.