Sioux Falls, South Dakota
The Setting
Minnehaha County is South Dakota's most populous county, home to Sioux Falls and situated within a state where nearly all other counties are sparsely populated. The county is encircled by rural areas, and residents from surrounding communities regularly travel to Sioux Falls for services, making the pretrial program a resource for a much broader population than the county population alone suggests. The program operates under the sheriff's office, making it one of only a few sheriff-based pretrial programs in the state. The program is supervised by a Corporal and is staffed by three coordinators, all of whom came from correctional backgrounds and deliberately transitioned into supportive service roles. The program supervises approximately 340 individuals a month and does not charge fees.
The Challenge
Starting a supervision program in a community with little pretrial history required building stakeholder understanding from scratch. Many judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement personnel had no clear picture of what pretrial supervision looked like in practice, how the Public Safety Assessment worked, or why individuals might be placed on supervision rather than held on cash bond. Without that understanding, buy-in was shallow and prone to erosion with staff turnover.
The Strategy
The program developed a structured educational series, offered twice per year over two consecutive years, specifically designed for justice system stakeholders. Sessions ran for approximately one hour, and included a provided lunch to reduce attendance friction. The content covered three areas: a brief history of pretrial services, an explanation of how the Public Safety Assessment works and how scores are calculated, and a walkthrough of what supervision actually looks like day to day, including what information clients receive at check-in.
When one stakeholder group did not attend two consecutive years of sessions, the program team did not repeat the same format. Instead, they scheduled a separate session specifically for that office, structured as a dialogue rather than a presentation. Two slides, then discussion. Buy-in from that office improved, though not uniformly.
In addition to the formal sessions, the team began attending arraignments in person. Physical presence at the arraignment allowed staff to answer questions from judges, attorneys, and others in real time, building familiarity through repeated exposure rather than one-off educational events.
A 61 percent decrease in failure-to-appear rates, calculated by comparing FTA rates from two years before pretrial against rates while clients were on supervision, became the program's primary data point with stakeholders and commissioners.
“We're kind of like the human element to it. They feel like they can talk to us because we're not part of the court system. We seem more like just approachable people.”
— Pretrial coordinator, Minnehaha County
What Made It Work
Judicial buy-in at the presiding judge level created enough authority to bring other stakeholders to the educational sessions. The presiding judge was personally invested in the program and made her presence visible; others followed. Having a judicial champion who actively encourages participation, without mandating it, tends to produce better long-term relationships than compelled attendance.
Being physically present at arraignments serves multiple purposes. It answers questions before skepticism hardens into opposition, it signals that the program is embedded in the system rather than operating at a distance, and it gives clients a familiar face at one of the most disorienting points in the court process. The team's titles, coordinators rather than officers, reflect a deliberate positioning as a non-uniformed, approachable resource rather than an extension of law enforcement.
Considerations for Replication
Different stakeholder groups require different educational approaches. A format that works for judges and commissioners may not work for prosecutors who see themselves as adversaries in the release decision. Designing separate sessions, in formats suited to each audience, produces better results than a single all-hands approach. Written communication rarely replaces in-person engagement for stakeholder education, especially early in a program's life.
Physical presence at arraignments costs very little and generates significant relationship value relative to costs. If the caseload permits, make it routine rather than occasional.
In the summary brief
Educate stakeholders on pretrial functions before seeking operational commitments.
After expanding into supervision, the program hosted educational sessions for justice system stakeholders covering the history of pretrial services, the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), and what supervision looks like day-to-day. When one stakeholder group was consistently absent, the team scheduled a separate, conversational session tailored to that office, and the dynamic shifted.
Also under Strategy 2
This project was supported by Grant No. 15PBJA-22-GK-03661-JAGT awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.