PIERRE, S.D. — Two new prisons will be built following a presentation by Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko before members of the Joint Committee on Appropriations that approved two bills unanimously giving millions to the Department of Corrections.
In her remarks, Wasko said, “We’re not asking for another prison; we’re asking for a new prison; one that allows us the space that we need to treat them so that they can go back into society with appropriate programming and they don’t come back in.”
Drawing from two reports prepared by the DLR Goup and CGL on the state’s aging prison system, Wasko, who took over as DOC Secretary in Feb. 2022, said the number one issue in the reports was the high levels of inmate crowding throughout the system. “The only recommendation to address that is a new facility to replace the State Penitentiary by name.”
“It’s done its time,” Wasko said about the State Pen. “It’s unsafe and it’s inefficient to staff. It’s got the highest vacancy rate and the highest overtime and double-time expenses as well.”
The South Dakota State Penitentiary is currently 176% over capacity with 488 more men housed than what is recommended by the American Correctional Association. HB-1017 would help all men’s correctional facilities to move under capacity by starting the process of a new men’s prison.
Wasko said the projected population for prisons will continue to increase well into the future. Both the men and women inmate population projections are expected to grow more than 15% in the next five years.
Wasko said DOC is looking to stay in the vicinity of Sioux Falls with a new penitentiary, but noted there’s concerns about having a new facility in city limits. She also said there’s some concern about how far the workforce would travel from Sioux Falls.
“There’s many variables that we’re looking at,” Wasko said. “I want to be mindful of who is going to be able to travel in that Sioux Falls proximity.”
Construction wouldn’t start until 2028 at the earliest, Wasko said, and only after legislative approval of Phase II in March 2024 or March 2025.
Wasko said the Jameson Prison Annex would still be used for specialty populations like inmates in wheel chairs and severe mentally ill inmates. The Sioux Falls Minimum Center would also continue to be used. It would be used as a “re-entry center,” Wasko said, adding that 215 DOC positions would transfer to the new state prison facility from the current 430 staff at the campus of the State Pen right now monitoring 1,390 inmates.
An additional 215 new positions would need to be added to help the new facility with an estimated ongoing cost of $12 to $16 million.
“That’s just a ballpark figure,” Wasko said.
Republican Sen. Jean Hunhoff asked what the cost per acre was for the women’s prison in Rapid City. The new women’s prison was 20 acres and cost just over $100 million, which would be about $50,000 per acre.
