An equal justice statue sits outside the doors of the Minnehaha County Courthouse in Sioux Falls. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Interpreter use in South Dakota courtrooms has more than doubled in the last decade, according to the Unified Judicial System.
Requests for translation services, which cost the state more than $26,000 a year in 2022 and 2023, increased from 1,566 in 2013 to 3,570 in 2023
UJS expects further growth in requests as South Dakota becomes more diverse. More than 17,500 South Dakotans speak English less than “very well,” according to a UJS report.
The court system started working to improve language access in the courts over a decade ago. Historically, the state has approached language access “ad hoc,” said Greg Sattizahn, the state court administrator.
The state has taken a more strategic approach to language access since then, Sattizahn said, including implementing a statewide language access plan in 2021.
“We wanted to make sure we develop the capacity to meet the demands and expectations — and understood how to work with interpreters,” Sattizahn said. “This is an area we have to continue to grow in and be responsive to with the demands we’re seeing. It’s not static.”