BROOKINGS — If you’re of a mind to dig into crime stats in Brookings County, you’re going to find numbers that mostly reflect a law-abiding population — numbers further reinforced by programs designed to keep people out of South Dakota’s prison system. 

“If we look at the crimes that impact the most people across the board, what we’ve done about that is hold people accountable. We’ve sent the right message to those offenders — ‘If you continue to endanger the people in this community, you will be prosecuted and you will be held accountable’ — and I think since I’ve taken office in January of 2019, we’ve done just that,” Brookings County State’s Attorney Dan Nelson said in an interview.

“If you look at violent crime, the conviction rates have increased. We’ve sent those violent offenders to prison, removed them from our community,” he added. “If you look at DUIs, you look at drugs, you look at all these types of crimes that are, in terms of volume, committed the most here in Brookings County, we’ve been able to confront that, send the right message, hold people accountable, stand up for victims and make Brookings County one of the safest counties in South Dakota.”

The years-long effort by Nelson and his staff — two deputy state’s attorneys, three legal assistants, a victim witness coordinator and an office coordinator — is reflected in the numbers. Felony convictions in Brookings County reached a high in recent years of 224 in 2019, but dropped to 128 by 2022. 

“I’m proud of that because our staff has worked very hard to do that,” Nelson said. “I’m proud of law enforcement and their efforts to help us achieve that. People in Brookings County should feel safe because Brookings County is one of the safest counties in South Dakota.”

He continued, “There’s nothing that we see in the data that is alarming, necessarily, about crime trends or the direction we’re going — the direction we’re going is that we have a safe county, and it’s my job to make sure that it stays a safe county. I think in the last four years, we’ve certainly been able to improve the safety of this county and I intend to do that going forward.”

Drugs

Within the felony category were 46 convictions for drugs, such as methamphetamine, in 2022, a decline from 64 in 2021. If Class 1 misdemeanor drug convictions from 2021 and 2022 are included in the overall total, the 2022 numbers of 56 are still much lower than the 84 convictions recorded in 2021.

“One of the things that we’ve tried to do as it relates to the methamphetamine issue is a two-prong approach,” Nelson noted. “The first prong is to go after the dealers. Since I’ve been in office, we’ve sent a number of dealers to prison. We are one of the only state’s attorney’s offices to follow through on what’s called a drug-free zone violation, which carries a mandatory minimum of five years. So if you’re dealing meth within 1,000 feet of a school or park and you’re doing it in Brookings County, you’re going to get hit hard and you’re going to go to prison.”

Non-prison options figure prominently in Nelson’s playbook as well. 

“The second prong is we continue to be a big supporter of our alternative courts — that’s like drug court, DUI court — because what you want is you want a lot of these individuals that suffer from substance abuse to make sure that they can get a handle on their addiction,” he said. “If you can get people help and try to cure their addiction, you’re going to dry up the demand. With the dealers, you want to crack down on the suppliers, and then with drug court you’re really trying to help individuals to try to dry up demand. That’s kind of that two-prong approach as it relates to methamphetamine.”

Alcohol

When it comes to the battle against drunken driving and alcohol abuse in Brookings County, the numbers aren’t quite as rosy, but are showing signs of improvement. 

“In 2021, we had this increase in the number of drunk drivers and then, thankfully, last year we saw those numbers decrease, the 2022 numbers, and, unfortunately, that continues to be an issue here in Brookings County,” Nelson said.

There were 276 convictions last year, a decline from the 310 in 2021. Still, the 2022 numbers were higher than in 2018-20, which were 235, 237 and 258 respectively. 

“More people need to make more responsible decisions. More people need to utilize the ride-sharing programs that we have available in Brookings. More people need to realize that every time they get behind a wheel drunk, they’re putting a lot of lives at risk,” Nelson said. “Until people start becoming more conscious and aware and caring more about their community in that regard, I think we’re going to continue to see this problem.”

He added, “We continue to aggressively prosecute DUIs. We have very high conviction rates on DUIs — if you are drinking and driving, you will be caught and you will be prosecuted.”

Mental health

The COVID-19 pandemic struck a vicious blow against the world when it first unfolded in 2020 and, even now in 2023, some of the pandemic’s aftereffects linger. This includes its impact on mental health and how the deterioration thereof had its own ripple effect on crime rates.

“I think the lockdowns, the isolation, the fear, all of that, the anxiety, that the pandemic caused, I think contributed to the mental health issues that we saw as a county,” Nelson said. “Because of that, I think mental health became even more intertwined in the criminal justice system because I think a lot of people who were struggling with mental health ended up falling into some criminal behavior.

“Whether that was domestic violence, substance abuse — all those things that sometimes we see lead to crime — certainly the pandemic exacerbated a lot of that. I think that was certainly something that we saw in the law enforcement community as it relates to the pandemic.”

Avoiding prison

Justice isn’t always necessarily about hauling someone off to prison. Sometimes it can be achieved through alternate routes, such as Drug Court or DUI Court. Nelson noted that Brookings County has both options available. 

“When DUI courts and drug courts were first introduced in South Dakota, part of the analysis was to save money because incarcerating someone in prison is over $30,000 a year whereas if you complete DUI court on a per-year basis, it’s less than $10,000,” Nelson said. “The second part of that, and the more important part of it, was that the programming that was offered here at the local level was far more effective than what was being offered in prison. Part of the incentive, though, to complete treatment here locally is that you don’t go to prison.”

In DUI court, for example, Nelson said participants have to complete alcohol treatment, maintain employment and housing, and they have to give an accounting to their judge and probation officer for a period of 18 to 24 months.

“If you graduate from a DUI court, statistically speaking, you are much less likely to continue to drink and drive compared to if you go to prison for a period of time and get out, you are much more likely to continue drinking and driving, right?” Nelson said.

“Why DUI courts are important is because these people that are sentenced to DUI court suffer from alcoholism,” he continued. “It’s because of their alcoholism that they endanger the community because they get behind the wheel of a car and drive that car intoxicated, right? So if the heart of the issue is their alcoholism, what is the best way to protect the community? Well, it’s to try to allow these people — give them the tools to confront and overcome their alcoholism.” 

The alternative courts play a key role in Brookings County’s justice system, and they’re something Nelson wishes more counties had access to. 

“I wish other counties had the resources that Brookings (County) does,” Nelson said. “We’re lucky and fortunate to be here in Brookings (County) and to have the resources that we do, and that certainly contributes to the success that we’ve had with our alternative courts but there’s always room for improvement. I know our drug court team and our DUI court team — it’s the same team — work very hard to make sure that we’re constantly improving the process.”

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.