Governor Dennis Daugaard has proposed 600-thousand dollars in his Fiscal Year 2015 budget for the establishment of drug courts in Beadle and Brown Counties. Specialty “drug courts” have been in place in South Dakota since 2007. Beadle County States Attorney’s Mike Moore is in favor of adding a drug court in Beadle County, but wants to make sure the state is fully behind the program…
Moore says his Deputy, Dan Nelson has been coordinating the Beadle County Drug Court program and expects it to launch in early 2015. The drug court would work with felony drug offenders. In the absence of a drug court, Moore started a diversion program for misdemeanor drug offenders earlier this year…
Moore says a drug court needs to be supported properly…
As for the diversion program, Moore is currently looking for someone locally to become an instructor. He believes program participants get more out of the diversion program with a teacher being in person as opposed to over an off-site video conferencing.