…or maybe we’re having trouble finding teen workers because we’re arresting so many kids for drug offenses:
A new study shows that South Dakota leads the nation in drug arrests among young people.
The study was conducted by the Greenhouse American Addiction Center based out of Texas. It shows South Dakota has the highest amount of drug-related juvenile arrests, with 45 arrests per 10,000 people.
The numbers do notinclude the reservations.
Felony drug arrests among adults in Pennington County are also at an all time high. Compared to this time last year, arrests are up nearly 20 percent in 2019. According to Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom, the two problems are connected.
“Whatever’s going on in the adult world is also impacting what’s going on with juveniles,” said Thom. “Just the amount of drug arrests in our community, largely driven by methamphetamine. Young people are most often caught with meth, THC wax and prescription drugs.”
Authorities say from 2017 to 2018 drug arrests among kids almost doubled [Calvin Cutler, “Study Shows South Dakota Leads Nation in Juvenile Drug Arrests,” KNBN-TV, 2019.05.21].
KNBN flashes the chart but doesn’t emphasize an important point: we don’t just lead the nation; our rate of juvenile drug arrests is more than double the rate of every state other than Wyoming, North Dakota, and Wisconsin… and we’re remarkably higher than those three:
![[Note: Greenhouse AAC's original shows the same 26.89 per 10K arrest rate for Wyoming as for North Dakota; however, their text reports a rate of 35.18 per 10K in Wyoming. I have edited the graphic to show the higher rate reported in text for Wyoming.]](https://dakotafreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Juvenile-arrest-graphic-CAH-edit.jpg)
South Dakota’s high arrest rates aren’t just for juveniles and drugs. According to the FBI arrest data for 2017 to which Greenhouse AAC points, South Dakota has the highest rates of arrest for juveniles and adults for all offenses, drug or otherwise. We arrest kids at 3.64 times the national per 10K rate; we arrest adults at 2.60 times the national rate. Those high arrest rates do not reflect any unusually high crime rate; they just reflect South Dakota’s lock-’em-up approach to drug offenses and other crimes. And as the ACLU noted in our podcast last summer, playing tough sounds good, but it’s not necessarily solving the root causes of unhealthy behaviors.
Yep. Come on down to the SDSP and see how many fresh-faced youngsters are there. Without treatment. It’s pretty damn depressing. BTW, some of this is also fueled by the ingestion laws in this state, where if law enforcement can’t find drugs, but do a drug test on you and you have some traces in your system you can and will be arrested.
This is one of the last things to ever lead the nation in. Is fed $ available to help with drug addiction treatment for the young inmates?
Arrested for drugs in your system?!? They have to be illegal ones then, not scrip, right?
SDGOP leadership, don’t you have just a modicum of kindness or compassion in you? Just a bit? A smidgen? C’mon!
South Dakota is totally for South Dakotans. USA doesn’t look to you for much, if anything. You’re like an appendix. You’re unnecessary. The rest of America sends you money to help you get by because you ARE part of us and we care about what we are, as a group. You exist to be South Dakotans and you exist for the sake of South Dakota. You’re nothing to anyone except what you are to each other.
Guess what? Kids make mistakes. And this is how you treat your kids? This is how you treat each other? What’s the end game? What benefit does arresting more kids for drugs than anywhere in America get you?
Do you know why almost no one has commented on these highly alarming statistics? Because of the three words that describe life in SD.
Everyone’s Hiding Something.
Privatized prison/jail systems with profit incentive dont help. Taking advantage of addicts illness is not much different than slavery.
Westside kids are more aggressive users-where the $$ is. Wow
Leslie
SD prison system is not privatized.
Juvenile Law Center denounces the move by AG Sessions yesterday to rescind the plan to cut federal use of private prisons. For-profit prisons make their money based on a headcount. This model is incredibly dangerous for society and for youth we serve.
I don’t see a Josh Walton but there is a Jim-Bob which I like the sound of. Never watched. But I am a virginny hillbilly micelf. Virginia spends roughly $1.5 billion a year to operate crowded jails and prisons. The cost to incarcerate a young person in a juvenile facility is roughly $100,000 per year.
show me your cite and i’ll show you mine. Was your post really necessary?