PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A recent lockdown at the Sioux Falls men’s prison complex resulted in correctional officials seizing many items that inmates weren’t supposed to have, including sharpened objects meant to serve as weapons as well as homemade tattoo equipment.
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State Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko briefed the Legislature’s Government Operations and Audit Committee on Monday about contraband found during the lockdown, which lasted more than two weeks. The committee then went into closed-door session with Wasko and other state Department of Corrections officials for more than an hour.
DOC officials had notified the public on September 16 that a lockdown had begun at the State Penitentiary and two related men’s correctional facilities in Sioux Falls on September 15. On September 19, they announced that illegal items of contraband had been found. On October 3 came the announcement that the lockdown had ended on October 2.
Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections. Photo from the South Dakota Department of Corrections.
Secretary Wasko showed images of various weapons and tattoo equipment discovered during the lockdown, as well as coffee grounds and tobacco, which inmates are also prohibited from having.
One of the sharpened objects had an inch-long blade. Wasko said she had been challenged that it wasn’t “a qualifying weapon.” That specific phrase doesn’t appear in the contraband section of the department’s offender living guide. Wasko said she didn’t understand what a qualifying weapon is.
“I’ve seen something like this kill somebody,” she said. “This is the type of weapon we’re very concerned about.”
There were also plexiglass shards that had been sharpened for use and a 16-inch steel rod that had been hidden.
Wasko said some had asked why tattoo equipment was contraband.
“I care, because it’s not, it’s not a sterile process, it’s not a clean process, and when they get infected, infections cost us money,” she said. One of the trends is to tattoo whites of the eyes. Wasko removed her glasses. “And I can tell you, the person who gets the infection in the whites of their eyes, it’s cost agencies a half a million dollars because of injuries to the eyes. So yes, we do get a little twitterpated about tattoo materials.”
She described the search process as very thorough, very targeted and well led by high officers in the system’s chain of command. Legislators’ questions were held back for the closed session that followed Wasko’s public presentation.
