South Dakota Searchlight-John Hult
The number of people granted discretionary parole by the South Dakota Board of Pardons and Paroles has fallen by 17% over the last two years, according to data shared at a board meeting Wednesday.
News of the long-term trend came alongside a more recent spike in returns to prison for those already on parole. It also comes on the heels of efforts by legislators to tighten laws on early release, and by law enforcement to capture more people actively avoiding their parole agents.
Gov. Larry Rhoden initiated a Department of Corrections-led crackdown on parole violations in response to the late April shooting of a police officer in Sioux Falls. A man on parole supervision is charged in that case.
Rhoden promised more and faster returns to prison for parolees accused of misbehavior like drug or alcohol use, as well as for arrests on certain new criminal charges — regardless of whether the person on parole has been found guilty.
Rhoden also announced that the state would hire more parole agents to backfill the positions of five experienced agents who’d make up an “enhanced compliance unit” designed to offer intensive supervision to the parolees most in need of it and check in with parolees on nights and weekends.
Last month, parole board staff screened 176 people for potential parole revocation. That’s a slight drop from May, but still represents a notable increase over the number of revocations in the months before Rhoden’s announcement.
Rhoden initially announced the state’s intention to reform parole in early April. The announcement of the new parole unit and declaration that drug use would result in a certain return to prison came at the end of that month.
There were 111 parolees returned to prison in April and 237 in May. Between July 2025 and March of this year, the monthly tally was never greater than 87.
The appointed board does not supervise parole agents, but rather makes decisions based on their supervisory work, in addition to acting as an advisory panel to the governor on requests for pardons and sentence reductions, known as commutations.
The recently dictated policy shifts have changed both the workload for the part-time board and the way its members talk about parole with the inmates they deal with.
Myron Rau, the board’s chairman, said Wednesday that he’s begun telling potential parolees that “the world has changed,” and that the days of leniency and second chances are over.
“You sign a document that says ‘I’m not going to drink,’” Rau said. “If they catch you drinking, you’re coming back to prison. All of this stuff is serious now. There’s no more of this ‘it was just marijuana.’”
Changes coincide with more repeat offenses
The figures for the month of June were presented as a coda to the fiscal year, which ended on June 30 and is used by the Department of Corrections for statistical compilation purposes.
Discretionary parole represents around a third of all parole cases. The majority of people on parole get their through presumptive parole. Under that system, sentences are trimmed automatically for good behavior and successful completion of individualized self-improvement plans that include things like earning a GED or finishing chemical dependency treatment.
Inmates get their road map to release during their first few weeks in prison, and needn’t ask the parole board to leave unless they stray from the path.
Inmates who act up or fail to hit the marks are resigned to make a case for early release to two-person parole board panels. If the two members disagree about whether an inmate deserves release, the full nine-member board weighs in.
In fiscal year 2024, the board granted discretionary parole to 57% of the inmates who asked for it. During fiscal year 2026, which ended two weeks ago, 40% of inmates in discretionary release hearings earned the blessing of the board.
“You’ve also seen recidivism tracking upwards” said Shelli Gust, the board’s administrator, using a term for the percentage of released inmates who return to prison within three years. “So that makes sense if you’re trying to look at that. That tells me that people aren’t doing very well on parole.”
The spike in revocation hearings is newer, Gust said, but appears to be durable. The number of revocations for July is on pace to match June, she said, which was slightly down from May, the first month of stricter supervision.
More revocations, more work, jail visits
Gust has noticed another trend emerge, as well, she told board members: revocation hearings involving people who’d been on parole for two years or more.
“It used to be pretty rare to see somebody who had been out more than two years,” Gust said, referring to the names on her list of revocation requests, “and I’ve seen a lot of people in the last two months that have been out for quite a while.”
Gust said she hasn’t “done a case study” to determine why, but said it’s possible that some of the people who’d been out a long time had been violating the terms of their parole and given multiple chances by their parole agents.
Board member Kurt Hall said parole agents “are buckling down a little more than they did in the past.” Hall is the sheriff of Faulk County, and said he’s noticed that in the day-to-day, parole agents have been easier to find and work with.
“A few years ago, it seemed like the parole agents were just hiding under a rock,” Hall said. “You couldn’t find one. Now, if you reach out and contact a parole agent, they’re very proactive, very helpful.”
Agents recommend revocations for people on parole, but only the board can actually send someone back to prison. In practice, the agents and other parole staff in Gust’s orbit offer recommendations to board members, who meet in special sessions to consider the arguments of people on parole who believe they should not be sent back.
It’s been difficult to keep up with revocations, but Gust said parole staffers have stepped up to meet the swollen demand for their services. Parole staffers have visited jails in Brookings and Ipswich over the past two months to meet with inmates and process violations.
She warned the board to be prepared to see a jump in the number of discretionary parole requests starting around November. Parolees who return to prison often get a chance to make their case for another shot at freedom eight months after their return on a parole violation.
November “is about eight months out from when we had that big bump of people,” Gust said.
Long-term trend toward tough enforcement, sanctions
The focus on parole supervision is wrapped up in efforts to improve Corrections Department cooperation with the wider law enforcement community, as well as a push for restrictions on early release at the legislative level.
The day after the parole board meeting, leaders of local, state and federal agencies held a press conference to trumpet the results of a three-day enforcement action spearheaded by the U.S. Marshals Service. The roundup operation, dubbed “Operation Repeat Offender,” led to the apprehension of 35 people wanted on arrest warrants or for ducking their parole agents.
State troopers lent their assistance to the three-day federal effort, but U.S. Marshal Dan Satterlee said Thursday that the campaign was distinct from another branded series of saturation patrols called “Operation Prairie Thunder.” That operation is led by the South Dakota Highway Patrol, with 14 patrols across 11 cities conducted over the past year to target all manner of criminal activity. Those patrols have collectively led to the apprehension of 21 people wanted for losing touch with their parole officers.
Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum, who’d called for more parolee accountability following the shooting of one of his officers, said parole agents have grown steadily more involved in local policing efforts over the past few years.
An absconder apprehension unit was first formed in late 2022 works with sheriff deputies and local police, and the number of parolees listed as absconders — meaning they’ve lost touch with their supervising parole agent on purpose — has since plummeted.
Even as that happened, however, concerns about second chances for apprehended parolees simmered for leaders like Thum in Sioux Falls and Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller, who formed a multi-agency parole task force for the Rapid City area earlier this year.
Since the end of April, Thum said, the level of coordination and communication between correctional staff and policing agencies has been remarkable.
“The conversations, the collaborations we’ve seen since April have been, I’ll put it this way, very, very positive,” Thum said. “I’m very encouraged about the momentum and where we’re headed, and I have no reason to believe that’s not going to continue.”
On the legislative side, lawmakers have passed measures to lengthen prison terms and restrict clemency requests.
A bill known colloquially as “truth in sentencing” became law in 2023, and requires people convicted of certain violent crimes to serve between 85 and 100% of their sentences, cutting off inmates imprisoned for crimes like manslaughter, kidnapping, robbery or burglary eligible for early release through good behavior or program completion.
Another bill passed by the Legislature and signed into law in 2024 requires people serving life sentences to wait four years between requests for commutations, which can shorten a person’s sentence and make them eligible for parole.