SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — It’s back to the drawing board when it comes to building a new men’s prison in South Dakota.The task force that was formed to look at alternative options; including a new location, met for a second time today.What the committee found out is that there’s going to be another study done at the tune of over $700 thousand dollars. Until that’s done, there’s not much more they can do to move forward.
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“The governor’s instructions to us was to have all the cards on the table to start fresh,” committee chair Lt. Governor Tony Venhuizen said.
Lt. Governor Venhuizen is the chair of the new task force.
“Which as I’m sure you all know was created by Governor Rhoden to look at the next steps for the needs for prison facilities in our state,” Venhuizen said.
The group says it needs answers to three important questions; the viability of the current prison, what a new prison should look like and cost to build, and the bigger question: where will it be built. They’ve already got $50,000,000 tied up in the Lincoln County site.
“A new consultant was hired a week or so a go, who will be doing a new report about prison needs and proposals of how to move forward that I hope we will have available to us by our June meeting,” Venhuizen said.
It’s something the state already did four years ago when it hired DLR to conduct a prison study.
“It will be similar to how we hired DLR a few years ago, but we hired Arrington Watkins to take a fresh look at this and they just got their notice to proceed yesterday afternoon,” Brunner said.
The state will pay the new consultant no more than $729 thousand dollars to find those answers the committee is looking for.
As the governor has repeatedly said – all options are on the table, including a new site.
The DLR study indicated a new men’s prison would need 160 acres.
“That provides setbacks for perimeters so that you can control your perimeter roads so that’s how they arrived at that, Arrington Watkins will review that and decide whether or not that is the same recommendation or if it should be a different recommendation,” Brunner said.
The state owns other parcels of land that could be used, but would require it to buy privately owned acres.
“So if folks are interested in selling their land for a prison site, we would have that at our next meeting,” Brunner said.
The task force was created in February by Governor Rhoden after the Legislature did not pass funding for a new men’s prison in Lincoln County.
The next meeting is scheduled for April 29th in Springfield.
