South Dakota oversight council says competency evaluation waits fell from months to weeks after 2017 reforms
South Dakota's oversight council, created by the 2017 mental-health-and-criminal-justice law, laid out in its 2020 annual report how the state tackled slow competency evaluations. The strategy had three parts: a fund to reimburse counties for local evaluations, a larger roster of approved evaluators (from 6 before the reforms to 32 by fiscal 2020), and a 21-day statutory target for completing an evaluation.
The report says waits that once ran four to six months fell to an average of 67 days in fiscal 2019 and about 44 days in fiscal 2020. It also describes Senate Bill 46 (2020), which allows competency restoration in inpatient, outpatient or jail-based settings under an approved facility, rather than only in residential facilities. The Human Services Center in Yankton had been the main restoration site, and the change was meant to ease its caseload.
The document is a primary, state-issued account of how one rural state reshaped its evaluation and restoration pipeline. Its figures come from the council itself and have not been independently verified.
Source: Improving Criminal Justice Responses for Persons with Mental Illness: 2020 Annual Report — South Dakota Oversight Council for Improving Criminal Justice Responses for Persons with Mental Illness, by Oversight Council for Improving Criminal Justice Responses for Persons with Mental Illness
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