PIERRE, S.D.(KCCR)- A task force looking to find better ways to support legal services for those unable to pay for them has completed its work.  The Indigent Legal Services Task Force’s report brings three recommendations forward.  The first of which would create a statewide Indigent Defense Commission and state public defender office.  State Court Administrator Greg Sattizahn says the office would start small.

Sattizahn says the second recommendation is a broad look at funding options.

Senator Jim Mehlhaff suggested a version of an idea floated by a second summer committee he serves on in the Study Committee on County Funding and Services to redistribute funds from the tax on alcoholic beverages.

The third recommendation in the report is to contract with the Sixth Amendment Center to look at the actual need for indigent legal services in every county in South Dakota.