SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — After meeting for more than eight hours in Pierre this past week, members of South Dakota’s Project Prison Reset task force have narrowed the focus of where a new men’s prison should be built and how big it should be.
Huron company added to prison discussion
On Tuesday, task force members unanimously supported building a facility, or multiple, at existing Department of Corrections spots or at proposed sites in the Worthing or Mitchell areas. The state has previously spent more than $50 million in land purchase and design costs for a new men’s prison in rural Lincoln County at a site that has now been officially rejected by the task force.
The goal is to build new prison facilities to house 1,500 to 1,700 inmates with a maximum cost of $600 million. JE Dunn Construction has been tasked with bringing proposals in front of the task force at its July meeting.
On this week’s Inside KELOLAND, two state lawmakers from Sioux Falls who serve on the task force, Republican Sen. Chris Karr and Democratic Sen. Jamie Smith. shared what they took away from the task force’s latest decisions.
Karr said state lawmakers have challenged contractors and the state engineer to provide options that meet the 1,500 beds and no more than $600 million price tag.
“I look forward to hearing back at our next meeting about what they come up for us for options,” Karr said.
Karr said the previous price tag for a men’s prison in Lincoln County at the cost of $825 million was too high to get the necessary two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate to be approved.
“We need to do something,” said Karr, who added that the Department of Corrections’ design choices of a campus-style prison built to last 100 years dictated some of the higher costs.
Smith said the longer the state continues to delay taking action, the more expensive future prison needs will become.
“If we only spend the $600 million, we’ve got to make sure that this is the right thing to build,” Smith said. “If we build under way too much, we’re going to be having this conversation right away again.”
Focus on rehabilitation
Smith said he believes the Department of Corrections needs more space and staff to help incorporate more rehabilitation, treatment options and vocation with inmates.
“Then it’s the re-entry too,” Smith said. “We need to get all those put together to be able to help people be successful in the future.”
Karr said that, in 2024, 63% of the men released from a state prison served less than one year. Karr said DOC is having more success with rehabilitation in Springfield but not Sioux Falls because of a lack of space.
“We’re too overcrowded in Sioux Falls,” Karr said.
Smith said lawmakers should consider what policies and investments the state could make to keep people out of prison.
Karr and Smith also will serve on the Legislature’s Initial Incarceration, Reentry Analysis, and Comparison of Relevant States Interim Committee. The panel meets for the first time on June 24 at the University of Sioux Falls and will:
Examine the makeup — demographic analysis, offense characteristics, and geographic distribution — of the current prison population;
Conduct a comparison of incarceration rates in similar states, including a review of sentencing laws and the incarceration of non-violent offenders; and
Identify barriers to successful reentry after incarceration, including housing, job training, and substance abuse barriers.
— Capitol Bureau reporter Bob Mercer also contributed to this story.
