Public Safety is one of the responsibilities counties are required, by state law, to provide. Over 50% of the County General Fund is allocated to public safety expenses. Those taxpayer dollars cover costs for the Sheriff department, which includes jail expenses and law enforcement. Those public dollars also fund defense attorneys, prosecution of persons accused of crimes, and court expenses. Officials who manage these budgets are doing a great job monitoring and controlling costs. As leaders, we work collaboratively together to make improvements that will save taxpayer dollars while keeping the community safe.
In 2017, Minnehaha County was awarded a two-year Innovation Site grant by MacArthur Foundation. The grant provides seed money to create the community vision of the Link. The Link, opening in early 2021, will consist of a detoxification program and a sobering center along with behavioral health triage programing. Our goal is to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits, reduce the number of certain individuals in jail, and link people, in need of behavioral health or other community services, to programs. This effort, made possible through collaboration of public and private entities, is available to individuals regardless of ability to pay.
Due to the success of the Innovation Project, we were asked to apply to be an Implementation Site of the MacArthur Safety and Justice Challenge initiative. In 2019, Minnehaha County was awarded this grant and, just this fall, we were asked to renew our project for another two years. A collaborative committee oversees execution of five over-arching strategies to bring programming and resources to people who are in the justice system. These strategies include pre-arrest, pretrial, criminal justice case processing, special populations (behavioral health), and community engagement/racial and ethnic equities.
Racial and ethnic equity work has been on our radar for over 10 years. Minnehaha County has supported a juvenile justice Racial & Ethnic Fairness Coordinator for the last 6 years, and now with support by MacArthur, are widening the scope to include adults. We are adding a leadership training and mentoring program for justice involved individuals and culturally based services for our Native American people impacted by the justice system. We believe the solution lies within the community, not just the criminal justice system; we have the City of Sioux Falls, Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, local hospitals, and schools at the table working to make Minnehaha County a better place to live and work
