Drug issues in Yankton? (Sioux Falls: apartments, crime, felony)

[shakman]

I saw there was a local, state, and Feds coordinated drug bust in Yankton last week. Does Yankton have a serious drug problem?

[601halfdozen0theother]

I don't live in Yankton, but do live nearby and read the area papers. There are certainly some shabby areas of Yankton and there are the typical arrests for DUI and domestic violence and those are often associated with drug or alcohol abuse, but it doesn't seem any worse than many other places. Since Yankton is a regional shopping hub and there is a lot of traffic coming up and down from Nebraska on 81, it wouldn't surprise me if that was a route for drug trafficking. But I don't actually know that to be true.

[history nerd]

Yankton has a reputation of being poor/having a drug/crime problem among residents of other nearby towns... But I've never seen much evidence of this when visiting Yankton myself... It does seem to have obviously wealthier and pooerer areas and I'm sure there is a lot of difference depending where in town you are.

[sam quentin]

Drug investigations/busts occur frequently in Yankton. And yes, there is a serious problem.
Yankton is home to a: County jail, State Prison, and a Federal Prison.
Plus, South Dakota has amongst the highest incarceration rates for all states, per 100,000 pop.

Parolees are often required to stay in state whilst serving time, and many in the Yankton state prison annex. are on work release, most often with companies in Yankton.
Thus an influx of Parolees is constantly adding to the Yankton population.
And our modern prison system is completely failing when it comes to actual rehabilitation, so those Parolees are added back into society often without the advanced social skills (ethics, morals, responsibility, consequences, etc.), creating more challenges for them, and leading to a relatively high-level of recidivism.

Worse, South Dakota has what many would regard has fairly Draconian laws in regards to THC.
Whereas possession of smaller quantities of marijuana leaf is a misdemeanor, possession of any quantity of THC concentrate (even a single vape pen, or gummy) is a felony, punishable by 5 yrs in State Prison.

A good number of inmates are serving time simply for possession of THC concentrate.
And spending time in prison (typically 5 yrs, with some time suspended and parole after 1 yr) usually does not cure one of their THC cravings.
And that stigma of being labeled an ex-con doesn't exactly elevate one's social status nor likely lead to future success.

So they often go back to old habits, and get arrested again, and again.
Often for increasingly-serious offenses (not only does prison often not rehab people, but makes them worse).

You can scan the arrest records in the local paper and see a pattern of often the same names again and again.

I've lived in a lot of places, including large cities and small towns, and Yankton has by far amongst the worst problems with crime that I've seen (given it's relatively small size).

[601halfdozen0theother]

Huh. I go to Yankton at least once a week and see no signs of this. I've met several federal prisoners as they work at the Humane Society, and they've all been perfectly nice people. The federal prison is really pretty and well kept, and the surrounding neighborhood is nice. There aren't any homeless (addict) encampments in town that are obvious. I have encountered some people who I thought were probably tweakers, and there are the usual bar drunks that all towns have, but not enough of them to scare or worry me. There is a homeless shelter, which I donate to, and they seem pretty successful in helping people who use their services to move back into jobs and apartments. There are run down parts of town, but Yankton is growing and nice new homes are being built on the north side. Just like anywhere else in the world now, housing is getting more expensive and affordable housing can be hard to come by.

I went to a lecture by a state trooper last year, and he said that small amounts of marijuana are a pretty low priority for them now as they watch what is going to happen about that in the state legislature. They do have a problem with large quantities of hard drugs being brought up the major highways - 29 and 90.

Of course, there's probably a lot going on that a regular person doesn't see. But any problems Yankton might have sure aren't obvious.

[SDbp]

There is probably more drug trafficking in most people's towns than they know about. I remember back in 2019 or so, first year mayor Paul TenHaken (of SF) came to our company for a meet and greet plus a state of Sioux Falls talk. He said vs the previous year, the amount of hard drugs seized like meth, fentanyl and heroin had risen like 10x over prior year. I think I remember him saying fentanyl was the one that had risen most rapidly. And this is all pre pandemic.