Pennington County has missed the cut for a multi-million grant to cut jail populations through planned diversion programs. But a smaller grant will help keep some younger defendants and keep hope alive for a bigger grant in the future.
Local law enforcement celebrated last year when Pennington County was chosen to receive a $150,000 grant to plan ways to reduce the jail population.
But county officials found out recently that they missed the big prize of a multi-million-dollar grant, multiple-year to fund those innovations.
"What we were hoping would happen is that Pennington County would be able to spend less on incarcerating people who didn't need to be incarcerated," States Attorney Mark Vargo says. "The program was all about the idea of being able to spend the time, and that means money, to ensure that we pick the right people to be in our jail system, that we pick the right people to be out."
The original grant submission included plans for a “sobering-bed” facility that would provide a valuable option other than jail or the detox center.
“Detox has a specific goal, and they do a really good job with it,” Vargo said. “But if you put people in detox that aren’t actually interested in sobriety, who just need a safe place to sleep it off, they are taking a bed from somebody who could have used it.”
And by that, Vargo means used it to work on their sobriety, in a system with limited resources already. Those who aren’t interested in sobering up for long also can be disruptive to people in the detox facility who are trying to fight their addictions, Vargo said.
“So you’re putting two groups of people together who don’t necessarily share each other’s interest and don’t necessarily help each other get where they need to be,” he said.
The sobering-bed facility would be a sizable investment in building, furnishing and equipment and staff, Vargo said. So, too, would be a proposed expanded community service program as a jail alternative, he said.
“Community service is a great idea, and I think it shows that they’re willing to work toward changing their lives and giving back to the community that they have offended against,” he said. “But it can’t just happen, automatically. There are people that have to be supervising it. There’s training. It has to provide meaningful opportunities. There are logistics and insurance and things like that."
All of that costs money, Vargo said.
“And while it’s easy to say we should have people go pick up trash by the side of the road, that only happens every so often,” he said. “And what we want from volunteers is probably more complex than that.”
While missing the big grant from the MacArthur Foundation, the county and city will get another $150,000 grant for a risk-assessment-person to help identify candidates for jail alternatives.
Vargo says the new grant and remnants of the first grant also will fund jail-diversion options to keep some 18- to 25-year-old defendants out of jail.
"So that those marijuana defendants don't turn into methamphetamine defendants in two years, or six months," he says.
The bigger grant was also to fund programs crossing jurisdictional boundaries with Native American tribes, maybe include taking state courts to reservation for tribal defendants. But Vargo says smaller projects of cooperation with tribes are still being planned for now, with much bigger initiatives possible with tribal law enforcement agencies if more funding is secured.
Like Vargo, Rapid City Police Chief Karl Jegeris is optimistic that the Pennington County and Rapid City still have a chance at the big MacArthur funding in the future.
“The MacArthur Foundation is asking us to submit our grant application again next year,” Jegeris said. “So we’re very hopeful that this is just a stall in the process, rather than a brick wall.”
Meanwhile, he said the new grant will also help consolidate important training for a new police advisory committee focusing on better community relations, especially with minorities.
"Most vulnerable… we already are on track to go toward relocating Health and Human Services in Pennington County, drug and alcohol program and most importantly for us in the police department the detox facility,” Jegeris said. “And I think that we can do a better job of serving that high-need population in our community so that it’s a safer place for everybody involved.”
The new grant and work it helps pay for will also provide more data for the next grant application, he said.
"I think that the possibility of the MacArthur grant shaping our future in terms of public safety is still there, and we're going to do everything we can to go after that grant."