Sheriff Mike Milstead and Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum, say South Dakota’s Parole system is broke

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The man accused of shooting the police officer this week in Sioux Falls was on parole at the time. Meaning, Darren Richards had been released from prison before he had served his full sentence.

According to the South Dakota Department of Corrections, a parolee is an offender who is conditionally released from prison before their prison term expires. The purpose of parole is to give prisoners an incentive to reform and avoid being returned to the penitentiary. It’s also a way to reduce prison overcrowding. Their release is supposed to depend on meeting certain conditions, such as checking in with their parole officer regularly, obeying the law, avoiding drugs and alcohol, and finding employment.

“People think that when you’re on parole, if you do something wrong, then you go right back to prison, and that’s not what is happening,” said Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead.

Law enforcement, like Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead and Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum, feel South Dakota’s Parole system isn’t working. They tell us that too many parolees are re-offending and not facing consequences for violating the conditions of their parole.

Milstead says he doesn’t blame parole officers, who are often overworked. For instance, according to DOC figures, in Sioux Falls, each parole officer oversees 57 parolees. We asked to speak with someone from the Department of Corrections about parole, but they instead sent us a statement.

“The Department of Corrections is required to release qualifying individuals to parole. DOC has worked with local law enforcement to reduce the number of parole absconders from 486 to under 100, and last session SB-42 passed that will take effect July 1st enhancing criminal penalties for parolees with ingestion,” the statement said.

Milstead says the future of parole may be in the hands of state lawmakers.

“I think we on the prison reset group agreed to build a 600 million dollar prison, the message was clear from our group to the legislature that you need to start investing money on reducing recidivism and providing programming and providing opportunities for people to do better and not fall back into the type of violent career criminals that we’re seeing in our community coming out of prison,” said Milstead.