Rapid City, which is located in Pennington County, as well as Custer County, Fall River County, and Shannon County encompass South Dakota’s 7th judicial district. Within the 7th judicial district is the 7th Circuit Court Services office, which supervises probation for juvenile cases and what’s refereed to as juvenile intensive supervision cases, in addition to all adult misdemeanor and felony probation and parole services.
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Candidates looking to become juvenile probation officers (referred to as court services officers or juvenile corrections agents) within the 7th Circuit Court Services office will responsible for investigating and supervising cases that may include:
- Drug screening (collecting DNA as needed)
- Alcohol monitoring, SCRAM monitoring, and other monitoring and tracking services
- Performing pre-sentence investigations (called PSIs)
- Performing social case studies
- Monitoring compliance with all court orders
- Determining client risks
- Overseeing activity within juvenile diversion and alternative treatment programs
- Providing referrals for various kinds of, assessments, testing and evaluations
How to Become a Juvenile Probation Officer in Pennington County
Bachelor’s Degree – Candidates for Pennington County probation officer jobs must possess a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in one of the human or social sciences.
Mandatory Training and Certification – All probation officers in Rapid City are certified, and training standards include participating in at least 16 to 20 hours of continuing education each year.
South Dakota Department of Corrections and its Probation System
The South Dakota Department of Corrections manages the state adult prison and parole system and the juvenile corrections system. All juveniles committed to the Department of Corrections and placed in correctional placement or supervised release (aftercare) are managed by the DOC.
South Dakota has a unified judicial system, through which the court services department provides probation supervision. The Director of Juvenile Community Corrections oversees all juvenile community corrections.
Juvenile aftercare in South Dakota includes four levels of supervision:
- Intensive – The most restrictive environment
- Medium – Emphasizes therapeutic intervention
- Minimum – Provides more privileges without ongoing support
- Administrative – The least restrictive; usually the final phase of aftercare supervision
As of May 2013, there were 281 juveniles in aftercare programs and a total of 676 within the Department of Corrections system.