Treatment courts try to reduce South Dakota's prison population

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South Dakota's treatment courts show a 73% success rate in preventing new felony offenses within five years.

The program serves as an alternative to prison for high-risk individuals with addiction and multiple convictions.

Treatment courts cost the state $8,000 per person annually, compared to over $33,000 for incarceration.

PIERRE, S.D. – As much as lawmakers debated whether South Dakota should build a new prison, they generally agreed that rehabilitation must be a vital component to ease the state's overflowing prisons and drug problems.

After passage of a bill authorizing a $650 million prison to replace the current state penitentiary in Sioux Falls, Gov. Larry Rhoden set up the Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force to look for programs and best practices that