RAPID CITY, SD — At the Rapid City Public Library this morning, South Dakota Representative and Gubernatorial Hopeful Dusty Johnson announced his intention to take on recidivism among drug users through an initiative which would seek to establish a task force which would bar violent offenders from receiving parole, increase penalties for dealers, mandate overdose reporting within schools, and consolidate data on drug overdose rates within the state.

South Dakota has what at this point can be judiciously called an incarceration problem. As has been acknowledged from one end of the state to the other, South Dakota has the 15th highest rate of incarceration, with native americans accounting for nearly 40% of the total imprisoned population, an anomaly among states with similar demographic compositions. 30% of this statewide population has been imprisoned for drug related crime, and on the whole South Dakota has the highest recidivism rate – the rate at which prisoners commit additional offenses following release – of any state, with one out of every two offenders convicted in 2021 returning to prison as of 2024. (South Dakota News Watch)

While Johnson maintained his magnanimous demeanor throughout the meeting, he faced both support and a significant call to further action as many of those voiced that while it was well and good to lock dealers in prison, the need for support in social, medical, and mental health-based recovery was a significant factor in reducing recidivism which the state of South Dakota has severely neglected.  A representative from Passages, a transitional living organization supporting former female inmates stating that a failure to receive state funding jeopardizing their ability to deliver service to the Rapid City populace, and alderman Stephen Tamang, who was previously CEO of project recovery, saying that lowering the state’s recidivism is going to be largely dependent on gathering further data, and making barriers to receiving addiction treatment as low as possible. Others from law enforcement and care positions spoke to their observation of the social causes which can lead to addiction, speaking to problems of hopelessness, lack of purpose, poverty, and broken homes as fundamental causes of addiction in the first place.

Additionally significant focus was placed on what was seen in the room as a last-moment allocation of addiction related funds Mayor Jason Salamun was explicit in his concern over how the state has chosen to allocate $7.8 million dollars, constituting the first of several expected payouts in relation to the nationwide opioid settlement. “I can tell you that a major driver for much of our crimes has to do with substance abuse. No doubt about it, and I am disappointed with the way that we’ve rolled out the opioid settlement dollars, because I feel like we are going to nickel-and-dime $100 million over the course of 15 years, rather than have a big vision”. Salamun advocated a comprehensive plan to improve addiction treatment within the state.

Speaking after the event, Johnson seemed happy with the meeting, and spoke to more social concerns, mixing his initiative goals in with material concerns. Johnson stated that he intended to make policy rules taken on under Governors Rounds & Daaugard law, requiring approval prior to gubernatorial pardons, as well as emphasizing his intention to rework the definition of “intent to distribute”, which is currently based on evidenced intent – changing it to include any offender discovered with 3g or more of fentanyl or methamphetamine. On the role of family wellbeing as a key aspect of addiction prevention, Johnson said “Family is the building block of a successful society. Part of the reason that I’ve been such a leader in welfare is that I think we want welfare programs to encourage the best behavior from families – we want to invest in the behavior, we want to invest in education, in training and in work”. Johnson stated that he did not wish to remove or lessen criminal punishment for victims of drug addiction, but intended on tackling South Dakota’s imprisonment problem by ensuring the imprisonment of more dealers.

Johnson reaffirmed his commitment to education funding, saying that while it might be “asking [his Safer South Dakota taskforce] to do too much,” to cover education’s role in addiction prevention, he was disturbed by Governor Rhoden’s intentions to cut $13 Million in K-12 funding within the state.