SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Among the stops on a tour Wednesday of the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls was a group shower, a location which the state Department of Corrections highlights as problematic.
“The crumbling of the concrete, the rusting of all of the metal,” state Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko said Wednesday. “The duct work is falling apart and eroding.”
But the infrastructure of the shower isn’t the only possible concern.
“There’s issues for having staff,” Wasko said. “There’s one way in and one way out, if you have 40 offenders underneath the shower heads and 40 offenders on deck, and you have two staff down there with one stairwell to get out.”
Wasko says this kind of shower is a relic of the past.
“You won’t see those types of showers being reconstructed in modern facilities today,” Wasko said.
KELOLAND News had the exclusive opportunity Wednesday to go inside the penitentiary and capture video in just a handful of spots selected by the state DOC. The video, along with what KELOLAND’s Dan Santella and Kevin Kjergaard saw when the camera had to be put away, is evidence of the prison’s aging condition.
“Every human being in here, the safety is our utmost responsibility,” said Amber Pirraglia, who serves as director of prisons with the DOC and interim warden at the penitentiary. “So, being able to have the right resources for our staff to be successful, to help coach, guide and mentor inmates to be successful is what we need, and the right physical plant is an absolute necessity in that.”
Wasko says the penitentiary was built for 400 inmates but had 784 Wednesday. Pirraglia says this overcrowding has ripple effects.
“It impacts movement,” she said Wednesday. “It impacts how many people are going through a chow hall. It impacts how many people are in the classrooms and the programming. When you don’t have the space to provide enough classes, some people don’t get it.”
Any prison will best serve the communities surrounding it if its inmates can be rehabilitated and eventually have a chance to positively contribute to society beyond its walls. But Wasko says the South Dakota State Penitentiary falls short in helping its inmates look to the future.
“There’s no treatment space,” Wasko said. “There’s some classroom space that’s across the yard, but that’s reserved for education, GED. But when you don’t have the ability to treat in environments, like therapeutic communities, whether it’s for substance use disorders or cognitive behavioral therapies, we create an environment that’s dark. It’s small. It’s enclosed. It doesn’t promote pro-socialization.”
Lawmakers in Pierre are considering more than one bill which deals with corrections while they’re in Pierre during the ongoing legislative session. House Bill 1025 would authorize the construction of a new prison in Lincoln County. Another, Senate Bill 124, would set up a task force on incarceration to evaluate prisons, both current and new facilities. Senate Bill 204 seeks to ban the spending of certain money for corrections until that task force on incarceration makes a final recommendation.
