‘Those we don’t see again are the success stories’: Treatment courts mark 73 percent success rate

Drug, DUI justice programming paying dividends on crime reduction, according to Unified Judicial System

(Courtesy of South Dakota Unified Judicial System)

South Dakota’s treatment courts are helping break the cycle of addiction and incarceration, with new data showing that nearly three-quarters of participants avoid committing another felony within five years of entering the program.

Data from the South Dakota Unified Judicial System, released during a Drug Court Advisory Council meeting on Oct. 14, show that 73 percent of all treatment court participants did not commit another felony offense within five years. Since the courts’ inception in 2008, nearly 3,000 individuals have taken part.

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