• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- After tours of South Dakota correctional facilities, including juvenile homes and the penitentiary in Sioux Falls, an oversight committee heard updates Thursday on sweeping changes taking root in the state's criminal justice system.
• Corrections Department Deputy Secretary Laurie Feiler updated the Corrections Commission on the state's progress in implementing a series of new policies aimed at reducing recidivism rates and the state's prison population. The state is setting up pilot programs, staff trainings and assessments to comply with the changes under policies that took effect in July.
• In 2012, several state officials -- including those from the state Supreme Court, governor's office, Legislature and Corrections Department -- reviewed South Dakota's criminal justice system and identified problems and ways to address them. The problems included high incarceration rates for parole violators and non-violent offenders. Feiler has been involved in the process from the beginning.
• "It's much broader than prison reform," she told The Associated Press before the meeting. "It's criminal justice reform."
• Among the problems officials identified in their review was that former inmates were spending more time on parole than necessary, and that "we really weren't getting a bang out of our correctional dollar," Feiler said.
• If former inmates were going to reoffend, they would most likely do so in the first two years, she said. A new reward system now allows cooperative parolees to reduce their time on parole, with every day of good behavior resulting in a day off the parole term. Sex offenders are not eligible for the program.
• Feiler said about 77 percent of parolees have earned credits in the program since it began in July. Parole caseloads have dropped by 200 across the state.
• The 2013 Public Safety Improvement Act also lays out several different efforts with one-time funds. Among those pilot programs is an effort involving the state and Sisseton-Wahpeton tribal officials to allow tribal members to return home while on parole. The program has $250,000.
• "We'd love to be able to have something that's successful that we can replicate,"

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