The need for court supervision, or probation officers is more than double what South Dakota’s top lawyer is asking for.
During his nineteenth and final state of the judiciary address, Chief Justice David Gilbertson says the state needs 20 probation officers. However, he’s is asking the legislature to fund seven.
He says there are 9,400 people on probation, mainly for drug and alcohol abuse.
“We have a lot of people on felony probation that weren’t there before,” Gilbertson says. “You’ve got to have adequate probation to make sure they’re following the rules. If you don’t have enough probation officers, that supervision is going to suffer. Therefore, probation won’t be as effective.”
Gilbertson says he’s asking for less than half of what the need is, because he says he’s a fiscal realist. He says if the state had the money, he would like twenty supervision officers.