Friday,  Sept.. 06, 2013 • Vol. 15--No. 53 • 18 of 32

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cost an estimated $51 million, resulting in a savings of more than $160 million, they said.
• Feiler said the prison system will train parole agents and others in new practices. State officials also have met with seven American Indian tribes about setting up a pilot program in which tribal and state officials will cooperate to supervise Native American offenders who want to spend their parole time near their homes on reservations.
• Greg Sattizahn, a legal counsel for the court system, said the state Supreme Court is working on rules for its part of the new law. One program will allow offenders who are put on probation instead of being sent to prison to reduce their time on supervision if they behave themselves.
• The court system intends to set up a new kind of court for drug offenders and others in two locations: one in Walworth County and another that will cover Minnehaha and Lincoln counties. People on probation with drug problems will be subject to testing for drug use and required to meet other conditions.
• The current drug and alcohol court system will be expanded, with new alcohol courts in Pennington and Minnehaha counties and new drug courts in Davison and Codington counties, Sattizahn said. Those courts allow people to avoid prison if they complete extensive treatment, pass frequent tests and undergo intensive supervision.
• Amy Iversen-Pollreisz said the state Department of Social Services is working to set up additional programs around the state that will help offenders deal with substance abuse and change their thought patterns away from crime.
• Attorney General Marty Jackley's office also is working to develop an automated system that will use mail, telephone calls, emails and text messages to notify crime victims about changes in the status of the offenders who hurt them. Those notices will include developments from the time offenders first go to court to when they are released. Because of the complexity of the system, it is not scheduled to start until 2015.

SD print journalist Kevin Woster takes TV job

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Veteran South Dakota print journalist Kevin Woster has joined KELO-TV and will report on air and online from the CBS affiliate's Rapid City bureau.
• Woster left the Rapid City Journal last month. He worked previously in Sioux Falls and Pierre.

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