Justice

South Dakota parents, educators and health officials are facing a four-year gap in data about risky youth behaviors related to drinking and drug use, sexual activity and eating habits. The lack of information about what young people are actually doing can impair efforts at the state and local levels to

Over the past decade, South Dakota saw a significant increase in the number of juveniles arrested for drug crimes, and officials see few signs that the arrests will fall anytime soon despite recent reforms of the state juvenile justice system. According to state crime data, the number of youths arrested

A new study proves what many drivers and law enforcement officials already believed: that the rate of highway fatalities, including alcohol-related fatalities, rises significantly during the annual Fourth of July holiday across the United States and even more so in South Dakota. The rate of highway deaths during the Independence

When Lauren Schroeder sought justice for her son who she said was physically abused by employees of Aurora Plains Academy, she grew frustrated that no one would listen. Schroeder said after an independent investigator with Child’s Voice at Sanford Children’s Hospital in Sioux Falls and an officer with

Gov. Kristi Noem has ordered the state Department of Social Services to enact a series of wide-ranging reforms intended to improve the safety of youths sent to privately run treatment facilities across South Dakota. The governor’s announcement came in response to an investigative report published June 5 by South

PLANKINTON, S.D. – The stories of abuse and anguish told by former employees, former residents and parents of residents paint a frightening picture of what has taken place over the past decade at the Aurora Plains Academy intensive youth treatment facility in Plankinton. Parents remain outraged at how their vulnerable