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southern Black Hills, as well as Pierre and Sioux Falls. This past year an alcohol court was begun in Aberdeen and a drug court in Yankton began this month.
• The first graduates of the 18-month program said to a person that "it would have been easier to just go to the pen and do their time," said Gilbertson, but they have proved that with proper guidance people can be returned a productive member of society. So far, the success rate is in the 81-percent range.
• These courts, he stressed are for drug and alcohol addicts, not for drug pushers or violent criminals.
• This alternative to probation or penitentiary time are "proven to work better to break the revolving door of crime with fewer tax dollars being spent," said Gilbertson. "They give the sentencing judge tools in addition to the traditional penitentiary sentences and probation."
• The previous day a comprehensive bill entitled the South Dakota Public Safety Improvement Act was filed in the Senate as SB70. The proposed legislation, according to Gov. Dennis Daugaard, is endorsed by everyone in the system from sheriffs and police up to the chief justice.
• The bill is the result of a task force study.