By Dana Hess, Community News Service

PIERRE — During his tenure as chief justice of the South Dakota Supreme Court, David Gilbertson, not only dispensed justice, he also saved lives. That was part of the message he delivered Wednesday in his last State of the Judiciary message to the Legislature.

“I leave with satisfaction knowing that there are people alive today who would not otherwise be without our drug, DUI, veterans and mental health courts,” Gilbertson told a joint session of the Legislature. “Our goal was to swell the employment rolls, not the cemeteries.”

After a 34-year judicial career and spending the last 19 as chief justice, Gilbertson faces mandatory retirement. During his message he looked back at the programs that helped save lives.

In addition to saving lives, the special courts are saving money. Gilbertson said a year in the DUI and drug courts costs $8,015 while a year in the penitentiary costs about $22,000.

Drug, DUI and veterans courts served 594 participants in 2018. Of their 135 graduates, only 18 percent have reoffended.

“That’s a substantially higher success rate than the 43 percent success rate for people paroled from the penitentiary,” Gilbertson said.

In 2017 the Legislature found ways to help people in the court system who have mental health issues. Legislation passed that year changed the wait time for competency hearings from as much as six months to an average of just 37 days. The legislation expanded the number of competency evaluators from six to 31.

“It goes a long way to ensure statewide coverage,” Gilbertson said of the changes. “No longer do all roads lead to Yankton and the Human Services Center located there.”

There are three veterans treatment courts in Minnehaha, Pennington and Codington counties. All programs are under the direction of a judge who is a veteran and can understand the challenges they face.

The veterans court is assisted by the Veterans Administration and, when appropriate, allows access to VA inpatient treatment.

“The veterans treatment courts stand alone among all our problem-solving court programs to offer inpatient services,” Gilbertson said.

The Rural Attorney Program has grown to include contracts with 25 rural counties to help provide lawyers in underserved areas. Last year the program was expanded to include municipalities with populations of 3,500 or less. The first to sign on where Elk Point and Sisseton.

“Not one attorney who has gone into the program later left rural practice due to lack of available legal work,” Gilbertson said. “The need is there and the need is being met.”

Gilbertson refused to make any pronouncements about what the future will hold for the justice system in South Dakota. He noted that future decisions will be guided by the Constitution, the statutes and “the goal of maintaining a peaceful resolution of the citizens’ disputes.”

“The people within the judicial system come and go, but the fundamental basics remain the same,” Gilbertson said. “We do not want to become a legal dinosaur lumbering off into oblivion.”

By Dana Hess, Community News Service

PIERRE — Sen. Ryan Maher wants to make some major changes in the way the state’s universities operate. For now, though, he’s just starting with two of them.

Maher, R-Isabel, is sponsoring SB55 which would require the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and Black Hills State University to share administrations.

“If I ultimately have my way, I’d do the exact same thing by combining the administrations of Dakota State and Aberdeen with SDSU,” Maher said. “I didn’t go far enough.”

Maher makes the case for his bill with numbers. According to figures he receive from the Legislative Research Council, BHS has 2,343 students with eight administrators earning salaries in excess of $1.1 million. According to Maher’s figures, BHS students are paying $495 each for the administrative team.

The figures are similar at the School of Mines where nine administrations earn more than $1.4 million. Maher said that means an enrollment of 2,148 students is paying $678 each for administration.

“There’s got to be some cost savings there,” Maher said.

The bill requires the Board of Regents to form a plan for shared administrative services at the two universities and present that plan to the governor and the executive board of the Legislative Research Council by Nov. 15, 2021.

The plan should include a timeline for the transition, specific administrative services that will be combined, the projected reduction in work force, projected short-term costs for the transition, long-term measurable cost savings, projected financial gains and the impact on facilities.

Tuesday afternoon SB55 was assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“If they are going to have a continuing downward trend of enrollment, we’ve got to make up the money someplace,” Maher said. “If it’s good for K-12 schools…”

Maher noted that when he came to the Legislature, the state had more than 160 school districts. Now it has 141.

“Somewhere along the line we’re going to have to talk about these universities—to have six of them in the state of South Dakota.” Maher said. “At the same time the tech school enrollment is increasing.”

Maher isn’t placing any bets on the likelihood of SB55’s passage.

“It’s something to talk about and see where it goes,” Maher said. “I don’t think it will (be approved), but we’ll start the conversation.”