A legislative summer study looking into ways to reduce prison reentry rates, is discussing how to help those dealing with substance addictions.
Legislators might not have concrete solutions now, but they agree something needs to change.
Lara Roetzel is the Pennington County State’s Attorney. She said when she sees people go back into the world, even for people who want to change, support is an issue.
“We have problems linking to housing, no transportation, the felony record bars them from getting many jobs, they face fines and court costs in the thousands," Roetzel said. "We want them to succeed but we’re sending them back to society with no map, no resources, no second chance. So, you have to build up your parole services.”
She said another issue is the lack of support for those suffering from alcohol and other substance abuse. Chair of the committee Kevin Jensen agreed, saying as stronger drugs become a problem, more thought needs to be put into the recovery process.
"Typically, we send somebody with an alcohol addiction or whatever to a 30-day residential treatment program. And right now, the state will only pay for 30 days. For a meth user, detox, just the detoxification portion of the stay can be 30-90 days," Jensen said. "It can be up to 90 days before they’re even cognitively able to understand what they’re facing, and how to be rehabilitated. But the biggest problem is we send them to prison, and then in prison, what I’m hearing is we’re not really actually doing anything.”
He said that’s something they need to keep in mind moving forward.
It costs the state an average $93 a day to send someone to the state penitentiary. Rep. Tim Reisch said the true daily savings are closer to $10 a day. He said to see true savings roll in; you’d have to shut down a wing or facility altogether.
However, he said if this summer study can play their cards right, such a thing might not be out of the question.
“If we got it right, if we really could do a better job on providing community-based and prison-based treatment, I think there’s a chance we could shut something down that would actually result in enough money to pay for or go a long way towards paying for that," Reisch said. "And I can’t even believe I’m saying that’s a possibility, but we should have a goal of that or something like that.”
At the next meeting, some discussion on ideas for potential legislation or policy changes is expected. No date has been set.
