Many crimes increased in 2020, some didn’t. But these criminal justice changes are here to stay

Pigeon605 Staff

April 7, 2021

By John Hult, for Pigeon605

Like so many numbers across so many aspects of our lives in 2020, the crime rate in Sioux Falls will carry an asterisk into the historical record. 

The global pandemic that altered patterns of consumption, travel, work and education also led to nationwide spikes in homicide, felony assault, domestic violence, overdose deaths and suicide. Sioux Falls didn’t see an increase in overdose deaths but was otherwise no exception. The city saw a record 13 homicides, and domestic assaults rose by two-thirds.

The city and county altered workflows to cope with 2020 stressors as well. And much in the way that remote work, online grocery shopping and hand-washing are likely to carry over into a post-pandemic world, many of the public safety moves made in Sioux Falls last year will remain permanent fixtures as its population and crime rate rise in tandem:

  • Fewer people will be jailed as they await trial because pre-trial releases for DUIs and drug cases reduced exposure to the virus in the jail, saved money and didn’t boost recidivism. 
  • The 24/7 sobriety program’s unmanned electronic kiosks will stay because they cut wait times for participants and boosted efficiency for the sheriff’s office. They also can help those in pre-trial monitoring programs check in with case managers.
  • Connected courtrooms with laptops and upgraded audiovisual technology will continue to be used for virtual hearings, and jurors will benefit from larger screens for viewing recorded interrogations, interviews, documents and other evidence.
  • Online police reporting for victims of low-level crimes like vandalism will continue to free up time for officers to tackle larger cases.

Some reforms were in the works before the pandemic and simply sped up out of necessity. Others were undertaken as stopgap measures and proved their worth. Regardless of their origins, the fixes that worked aren’t going anywhere. 

“Some of those changes, especially things like the changes to the (pre-trial) bond schedule, are probably going to stay,” Sioux Falls Police Chief Matt Burns said. 

Not every fix was a slam dunk, of course. Some of the innovations exposed gaps in access and caused slowdowns and hardships for groups already stressed by the pandemic’s myriad difficulties. Treatment programs at the Minnehaha County Jail shut down because of the pandemic, for example, and space in treatment programs outside the jail remained limited — virtual or otherwise. Even getting a court-ordered chemical dependency evaluation proved more difficult in 2020, according to Minnehaha County Public Defender Traci Smith.

Online tools for court date check-ins weren’t always easy to use or understand for certain justice-involved populations, such the homeless or those below the poverty line.

“We were all dealing with things like families getting sick and kids being in quarantine,” said Smith, whose husband was hospitalized for weeks with COVID-19.

“We all live pretty comfortable lives, and we were dealing with all those things. Seeing our clients go through those things … on the streets, separated from families, it was shattering.”

By the numbers: Crime in Sioux Falls

There was plenty of major crime to deal with in 2020 in Sioux Falls, starting with the record 13 homicides. The previous high was 10 in 2017.

Aggravated assaults were up 47 percent over 2019 in the city as well. Felony and misdemeanor domestic assault cases grew 65 percent in total. Robberies, burglaries, larcenies and vandalism cases rose, and suicides increased from 30 to 32. 

Burns attributes much of the violence to 2020’s unique circumstances. 

“There are people who lost their jobs. Suddenly, you’ve got children that may or may not have the same school schedule, and that increases stresses on families. Day cares were closing because of exposures,” Burns said. “You had a whole dynamic of things putting pressure on people, on families, that was completely different from what we’ve seen in a long, long time.”

There was notable positive news for Sioux Falls, though. Rape reports fell, as did runaways, juvenile crime, drug cases and DUIs. Declines on the juvenile side likely were related to having fewer children in school last spring, Burns said, where they would have interacted with school resource officers. Online reporting was up more than 45 percent, showing that the public was willing to take advantage of online efficiencies.

Overdose calls dropped from 93 in 2019 to 63 in 2020, and overdose deaths dropped from 28 to 20 — a contrast with the overdose increases seen in other parts of the country. 

All 13 homicides were solved, highlighting one of several categories where the city’s clearance rate was well above the national average. The city’s crime rate growth didn’t outpace its population growth, either. 

The violence was troubling, Burns said, but it wasn’t unique to the city, the state or the nation. Rapid City saw 12 homicides, for example, and homicides increased nationwide.

“They have 40 percent of our population, he said, comparing Rapid City with Sioux Falls. “That’s not to disparage any other city, but I think it is helpful to put it in perspective and say we’re not in this alone.”

Sheriff’s office, jail cope with pandemic pressures

The Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office also saw an increased workload.

There was a 52 percent jump in callouts for detectives, much of which was related to two homicides in the county and assistance for city homicides.

“When you have a homicide, you get all agencies involved, from DCI (Division of Criminal Investigation) to federal agencies, and you really try and piece that backwards puzzle together. We don’t take a break until that information is gathered,” said Capt. Josh Phillips of the sheriff’s office.

Calls for service in the county dropped by more than 1,300 overall, however. Aggravated and simple assault cases increased on county patrols but not above a high in 2018. Domestic assault cases declined slightly from 2019, and runaway reports dropped significantly. 

Last year’s effect on the county was most significant at the jail, where those who commit crimes in Sioux Falls might be housed.

The sheriff’s office also is responsible for serving warrants anywhere in the county, which meant the Warrant Task Force stayed busy. 

“The (crime) numbers we have are for what’s happening out in the county, but the numbers we see in town affect everything we do,” Sheriff Mike Milstead said.

The onset of COVID-19 sent jail staff scrambling to sanitize surfaces, prepare a space for inmate quarantine and secure personal protective equipment for correctional officers. It also forced the sheriff’s office to update its 24/7 sobriety program with kiosks that allowed participants in the twice-daily breath tests to blow into a tube and move along without the aid of a deputy. 

“We knew we needed to make some sort of change to it (24/7) right away, and luckily there was a company out there that had these kiosks,” said Mike Mattson, warden of the county jail.

The program also put more people on continuous alcohol-monitoring bracelets at a reduced cost to cut risk.

Trimming the jail population was a must. The warden and sheriff joined the state’s attorney’s office, public defender’s office, Chief Burns and Second Judicial Circuit Presiding Judge Robin Houwman to hammer out changes to the bond schedule one year ago to help make that happen.

The schedule offers suggested bond amounts for most offenses in the state. South Dakota’s general schedule has a bond of $225 to $1,000 for DUI, for example, and $1,000 for all drug offenses. The Second Judicial Circuit scrapped those figures, choosing instead to release nearly all drug and alcohol offenders with orders to appear in court. 

Anyone charged with domestic violence or a serious felony still had to see a judge before any bond order, but Houwman said the other cases typically resulted in early release anyway.

“We only sped up the release (for most of those individuals) by 24 hours,” Houwman said. “If you look at the cost to the community to house them, it just made sense.”

That helped slow the traffic and saved money. The per-day cost to house inmates is $97. 

But thousands of inmates still needed to be booked and monitored last year. Correctional officers continued to work 12-hour shifts in the general population areas and the jail’s quarantine unit, often logging overtime, and Mattson awarded several of them for their diligence at the end of the year. There have been no deaths associated with a COVID-19 case at the jail, and no infected officers have been hospitalized.

The virus’ threat to inmates and officers continues to weigh heavily on Mattson, who’s still not comfortable reopening the jail’s in-house drug treatment program and continues to look to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the South Dakota Department of Health for guidance on safety.

“It’s really been a monumental feat for the officers that are in the jail 12 hours a day to manage all those inmates,” he said.

Courthouse remains open

The altered bond schedule was taken up to address the pandemic, but it also aligned the goals of a MacArthur Foundation criminal justice improvement grant the county sought out years earlier. 

The bond schedule “was on our list of things to do,” Houwman said. “The initial changes that we made, sitting in a room with those decision-makers, were done in about an hour. That normally would’ve taken several months.”

The sheriff’s office already had built out a pre-trial services division by early 2020 — a sort of probation office for people awaiting their day in court. 

The results suggest that the moves were wise ones. Pre-trial services now uses a risk assessment tool to determine eligibility for release. Those who leave do so under certain conditions and check in with their monitoring officers via text, phone, in person or online while their case is ongoing.

Of the 517 people involved so far, 187 have had their cases closed through a plea, conviction or case dismissal. Thirteen of the 517 have been rearrested, five failed to appear for court, and four had their bond revoked. Twenty participants were returned to custody. 

“Overall, it’s been a really valuable project for our community,” Houwman said. “It’s about making sure the people in jail need to be there.”

The bond schedule was just one piece of the pandemic puzzle for the courts, which have remained open in spite of COVID-19.

“We’ve reworked nearly every aspect of what we’re doing at the courthouse,” she said. “I was very firm. We didn’t want the public to think the courthouse wouldn’t be open for them.”

Jury selection required social distancing, as did jury trials, during which jurors sat in the gallery, in masks and assigned, socially distanced seats. The courthouse even secured seat cushions to soften the wooden benches that stood in last year for the soft swivel chairs in the tight-packed jury box.

Courtrooms added video screens, cameras, microphones and laptops for Zoom hearings, which judges can operate from the bench.

Those courtrooms now can be used for remote testimony and court appearances when necessary well into the future. Plastic barriers went up on every floor, and the court helped more people connect to the state’s online app for tracking court dates. 

Public defender: Pandemic hit some harder than others

Smith, the county public defender, was pleased overall with how quickly and smoothly the system moved to respond to the pandemic. She also has been impressed with how well the normally adversarial parts of the system have worked together to address the challenges.

“Overall, the court has been really great to work with. When you’d turn on the national news and see people talking about what needed to be done in the courtrooms (due to COVID) … Judge Houwman was doing all of those things,” Smith said. “I think, if anything, it made us all come together.”

The stresses of a spike in homicides, domestic violence and assault weren’t easy on Smith’s office or her clients, though. Those arrested for drugs in 2019 waited for spots in court-ordered chemical dependency treatment well into 2020, she said. Clients who previously would have attended treatment in jail didn’t have that option. 

“The closure of treatment centers was the biggest hardship,” Smith said. “A lot of people were either sitting in jail waiting for bed dates or out at the Bishop Dudley (Hospitality House) waiting. Then when the treatment would start, it would all be over Zoom.”

Online treatment wasn’t always a great option, either. People in poverty and those without stable housing had trouble finding consistent access to the private, high-speed internet connections, and public library terminals aren’t ideal for counseling sessions. 

“The biggest thing that we learned about technology was that once we figured it out, we were doing well,” Smith said. “Our clients were not doing well.”

The low-income populations served by the public defender’s office didn’t fare well in the face of the virus, with or without criminal justice involvement. At least four of the transient clients who had been represented by Smith’s office lost their lives to COVID.

“Their names aren’t published in the paper or in obituaries because they don’t have families but for a small group of other homeless people,” she said. “For those of us who have been around a long time, it is very sad.”

A dearth of treatment options is a perennial problem for Sioux Falls, Houwman said. The city needs more programs in general but especially more culturally appropriate options for Native Americans, who are overrepresented in the South Dakota justice system.

“We have great treatment providers in our community,” Houwman said. “We just don’t have enough of them.”

The judge has high hopes for programs like Generation Red Road, a treatment program tied to Native American culture, developed and operated by Native American leaders through Urban Indian Health. The Leaders of Tomorrow program also recently began offering a program for those involved in the justice system, and Houwman sees promise in the early results. 

Treatment programs, early intervention for first-time offenders and projects like The Link community triage center for behavioral health diversion are all important parts of the evolving criminal justice system in a growing city, according to recently elected Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar. 

Haggar worked for Smith as a deputy public defender for several years. He sees many opportunities to improve outcomes for people charged with crimes and for public safety as a whole. He’d like to build a more structured and further-reaching adult diversion program for first-time and low-level defendants, he said, similar to what’s offered for juveniles.

Haggar didn’t take office until this year but was impressed by how well various agencies rose to the challenge of 2020 and sees openings to build on the positive steps taken to address the rising crime that accompanies population growth.

“It’s hard to say we’re going to prosecute our way out of this situation,” Haggar said. “That’s not going to get the job done.”

Chief Burns sees the need for a multifaceted approach as well. He looks at the upcoming opening of an Amazon fulfillment center, the CJ Foods facility announcement and other opportunities on the way that will boost the population and sees a need for expansion of public safety services across the board.

“We’re going to go through 200,000 people pretty briskly,” Burns said. “We’ve got to be prepared to deliver city services.”

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