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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
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Prison task force rejects original Lincoln County site, tightens budget for new facility
Mike Quinn and Mike Conder of Arrington Watkins consultants in Phoenix, speak to members of the Project Prison Reset work group on June 3, 2025 in Pierre, SD. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) PIERRE – After years of political upheaval, court battles and legislative tugs-of-war, the plan to build a new men's prison in Lincoln County south of Harrisburg is dead. Members of the Project Prison Reset work group spent more than eight hours at the Capitol on Tuesday running through possible site locations, building designs, budget needs and public comments before voting unanimously to scratch the original site from its list of replacement options for the aging state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Also gone? The former Citibank site in Sioux Falls, a patch of land outside of Huron, a former cheese plant in Grant County – and more than $50 million in cash, spent to prepare the Lincoln County site for a prison that now won't be built. The members set a $600 million cap on a penitentiary replacement, budgeting for between 1,500 and 1,700 beds – about the same capacity as the original Lincoln County site, but $125 million under that version's guaranteed maximum price. The legislature spent three years dumping money into an incarceration construction fund in the run up to February, the month lawmakers balked at the Lincoln County project's location and price tag. The project needed but couldn't secure two-thirds majority support. The failure spurred the creation of the prison reset group by Gov. Larry Rhoden, who'd pushed for the Lincoln County prison. Now, the task force has asked the state's contractor, JE Dunn, to study a site in Mitchell, another near Worthing, and state-owned land on the grounds of the Mike Durfee Prison in Springfield and at the penitentiary in Sioux Falls. House Speaker and task force member Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, said the new parameters are a 'departure' from the original plan, but a 'necessary step' to find consensus. 'The Legislature has already said we don't need that big of a prison, we don't want to spend that much money all in one big shot,' Hansen said. In a report presented to the group Tuesday, consultants with Phoenix-based Arrington Watkins Architects projected that the state's total prison population will grow by 31.7% by 2036 — from 3,926 in 2025 to 5,172 in 2036. That's largely driven by the state's truth in sentencing law, which requires people convicted of violent offenses to serve between 85% and 100% of their sentences, depending on the category of their crime. Even without considering projected growth in prison population, the consultants said, every correctional facility in South Dakota is beyond its capacity now. The state needs more than 1,500 beds to deal with current capacity issues at Durfee and the penitentiary are needed immediately. 'You need to build beds now,' said Mike Quinn, managing principal at Arrington Watkins. Report: Tough-on-crime policies could push prison construction costs as high as $2.1 billion The parameters set Tuesday significantly restrict the project's scope, said Vance McMillan, senior vice president of JE Dunn. That includes additions to existing facilities or building cheaper, steel-celled options that'll last 50 years. The original campus-style prison was meant to stand for 100 years. 'A hundred years is out the door with the new budget challenge, in my opinion,' McMillan said. That 'not really' a responsible use of taxpayer funds, Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, told South Dakota Searchlight. But it's politically necessary. The $600 million cap is more 'palatable,' he said, since it's roughly the amount of money the state has on hand to fund the project already. 'We have nearly 800 inmates living in a medieval setting,' Mehlhaff said, referencing the penitentiary in Sioux Falls, which opened in 1881 and predates statehood. 'We have to do something to correct that as soon as possible.' The state engineer and contractors are expected to present designs that meet the new parameters by the task force's July 8 meeting. Legislators will convene for a special session at the state Capitol on July 22. JE Dunn will present options, but McMillan said they might not be able to pull together many details in five weeks. Open process and publicity draw wide range of offers for state prison site Members of the task force, especially the lawmakers, want to build on or expand upon existing prison sites. Increasing capacity on land the state already uses for prisons avoids the public's general distaste for a new location, said Rep. Karla Lems, R-Canton. Lems was an outspoken opponent of the original Lincoln County site. 'You take some of the heartburn away,' she said. 'Then you just deal with the money.' JE Dunn representatives said the state could expand capacity at Springfield with new dorms or barracks facilities for around $55 million. A barracks would fit another 420 minimum security beds in an open space filled with bunkbeds. Members also considered building a compact facility on unused acres at the state penitentiary and adding a second floor to the Jameson Annex in Sioux Falls. Options to build on existing DOC land is limited and more costly, because it would limit a construction workforce to non-felons, take more time to get in and out of the site, and impact operational hours, said Sen. Ernie Otten, R-Tea. JE Dunn representatives estimated it'd cost more than $130 million to build 192 beds on top of the facility. 'Modifying Jameson is a no-go,' Otten said. Business and local government leaders from Mitchell enthusiastically pitched their site to the task force. The city brought letters and resolutions of support and said a prison would drive economic growth. The site got a tepid recommendation from consultants because it's about an hour's drive from Sioux Falls. It's also located next to several possible escape routes:he interstate, the James River and a railroad. The Mitchell City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the prison being built in Davison County. But division is already surfacing in the community. Mitchell residents voiced concerns at its Monday city council meeting. According to reporting from the Mitchell Republic, some residents are concerned about the prison's location, parolees released in the city, property taxes and a lack of a citywide vote on the matter. Sen. Joy Hohn, R-Hartford, said she listened to the city council meeting and said residents are 'just becoming aware of the proposal.' City officials plan to hold community forums to increase awareness, educate residents about the impacts, and listen to concerns from community members. The DOC plans to survey its staff to determine if they're willing to commute to Mitchell or Worthing. The Worthing site in Lincoln County received a slightly more positive response from consultants, but the only speaker during public testimony who spoke to the location raised concerns about drainage and flooding at the site. Several members said they'd vote for the budget restrictions and new plan, but added they might not be able to support a decision next month. Rep. Tim Reisch, R-Howard, is a former Department of Corrections secretary. He aired 'serious operational concerns' about the current administration's handling of the prison in recent months and years due to recent suicides, overdoses, attacks on correctional officers and gang activity. Reisch recalled walking through the minimum custody unit during a penitentiary tour and observing that of 230 inmates in the unit, 'only nine of them had jobs, and the rest of them were sitting around watching Oprah Winfrey every day.' 'These are inmates that are getting ready to go out and rejoin society,' Reisch said, 'and we are failing them.' Venhuizen told reporters after the meeting he believes it would be easier to manage such issues in a more modern facility. Sioux Falls Democrats Sen. Jamie Smith and Erin Healy both expressed hesitancy. The budget could limit space needed for rehabilitation and education efforts, they both said. Healy emphasized that her 'number one goal' is to build a safe prison with proper rehabilitation space. 'We absolutely need to ensure that our responsibility for taking care of people is of our greatest concern,' Healy said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Prison task force meeting set for Tuesday
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The South Dakota Prison Project Reset task force meets Tuesday in Pierre. The meeting agenda includes the site update from consultant Arrington Watkins as well as information on possible prison plans. KELOLAND News will be live streaming the meeting which is set to start at 10:30 a.m. This week, the consultant recommended the original Lincoln County site between Harrisburg and Canton as the best site of 13 for a new prison. Twelve sites had been submitted to the task force for consideration. Of those 12, the consultant said five were potential sites. All five of those potential sites were not as good as the original site. In May, the consultant released an analysis of the existing men's prison and said it needed to be replaced. A multi-phase project with the first as a total of 1,728 beds was recommended. The report said a second roughly 1,700 bed project could be needed in the future. The total project cost was estimated at $1.9 to $2 billion. KELOLAND's Dan Santella will be at Tuesday's meeting. Watch for meeting coverage on the KELOLAND website and KELOLAND News. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Task force members react to consultant's proposal
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — In its latest report, a consultant has new recommendations for the Project Prison Reset Task Force. Arrington Watkins submitted its recommendation Monday morning. After weighing factors such as location, availability to utilities and to emergency vehicle access among other things, the group recommended for the task force to take a closer look at six of the possible 13 sites, with one familiar location leading the way. DOH reports first measles case in South Dakota The six sites at the top of the consultant's list are the existing Lincoln County site, CitiBank and Kappenman, which are both in Sioux Falls, Worthing, Mitchell and Huron. 'It was necessary to somehow get down to a manageable list. Six seems reasonable,' South Dakota Republican Representative and task force member Greg Jamison said. The locations were analyzed based on a point system. At the top was the Lincoln County site, located between Harrisburg and Canton. 'One of the key takeaways is they're trying to find a place for 1500 or 1700 beds all in one place. There's a lot of advantages and efficiencies to having one location with these many beds where you've got one fence, one perimeter to manage, you've got all that food that needs to be prepared,' Jamison said. However, Republican representative and task force member Karla Lems sees it differently. 'I don't think we have to have it all in one spot. I disagree with him on that. I think we have opportunity in Sioux Falls. I go back to the DLR Group study, which made a lot of sense to me. You could build another 300-bed facility between the old hill and the Jameson. You can add up on the Jamison 192 beds,' Lems said. It gives the task force plenty to discuss at its next meeting in Pierre Tuesday. 'I think it's going to be very spirited and, full of ideas, questions and hard answers, probably hard questions. But tomorrow, I think you're going to see some outcomes that finally get this prison issue on the right track,' Jamison said. 'I think we're going to have a lot of input. I think we're going to have testimony from people, probably from these different areas that have been proposed to say, 'These are the things that would be good about it coming to our town or our city.' They're going to have opposition to some of these things,' Lems said. The task force will meet at 10:30 Tuesday morning in Pierre. We will be livestreaming the discussion on on our website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Third-party review ranks Mitchell site fourth for possible state prison, recommends initial Lincoln Co. site
Jun. 2—PIERRE — A Mitchell site ranked fourth out of six options in a third-party "refresh" look at the potential sites for a new state men's prison in South Dakota. A study from Arizona-based Arrington Watkins Architects looked at six options for a South Dakota men's correctional facility and based on a site analysis ranked the existing Lincoln County site owned by the South Dakota Department of Corrections as the top option for the Project Prison Reset panel to consider during its next meeting on Tuesday, June 3 in Pierre. The Mitchell site was described as "remote but promising" but scored 2,040 points out of a maximum 2,975 points when the sites were being sized up on a point scale from 1-to-5 and then multiplied by an importance factor out of 100 points. The Lincoln County plan scored 2,355 points, followed by a Huron plan at 2,220, a Worthing site plan at 2,045 points was third and the former Citibank site in northern Sioux Falls and Mitchell both scored at 2,040 points to tie for fourth. The most important elements for the new prison included location (within 30 miles of Sioux Falls), proximity (not located close to a major interstate, railroads and waterways), size (a minimum site of 126 to 160 acres for a full site) and available site utilities. The Lincoln County site scored a 5 in location, proximity and site size. Mitchell scored 3s in location and proximity and a 5 for size but did not score higher than a 4 in any other category. Among the positives in the Mitchell site analysis included the 160-acre land size, the generally flat land and the ability to develop a maximum of 1,728 beds. However, the nearby city lagoons for wastewater would still require a lift station, adding costs to the project, infrastructure improvements would have to be made to the site and the plan noted the site could have escape issues. "The location is 70 miles from Sioux Falls, which results in added costs for inmate transportation and support services," the study said. "It is also located just over one mile from Interstate 90, and within a mile of a railroad and the James River, which provides potential escape routes for inmates." Proposals from Aberdeen and Grant County were eliminated due to their remote distances from Sioux Falls, while five other sites closer to Sioux Falls were eliminated due to buildability issues with the land and the proposed sites. The remaining six sites were then considered for a conceptual plan and a "test fit," Arrington Watkins said. "The goal of the concept plans is to take the resulting buildable area left on each site after site analysis and represent a prison size and bed count that could utilize each site," the study said. "They are not a proposal for what should or should not be built on each site." The Lincoln County site is located about 10 miles south of Sioux Falls between Harrisburg and Canton on a 160-acre site that the state of South Dakota owns. Earlier this year, it was projected to cost $825 million to build the 1,500-bed facility. Nearby landowners to the proposed site have voiced opposition to the plan and to how the state was moving ahead with a largely secretive process to approve the prison. In February, a bill in the South Dakota Legislature to fund the remainder of the prison project failed, leading to Gov. Larry Rhoden to appoint the Project Prison Reset task force to reassess the plan. That brought on the consideration of potential new sites around the state. The state has already spent more than $60 million on the previous design and prep work for the initial Lincoln County plan. In Monday's latest look at the prison options, Arrington Watkins said the existing Lincoln County site is "10 miles from Sioux Falls, is not in proximity to major interstates, railroads, or major waterways, has the size for a full build of 1,728 beds ... is ranked high for site access, and only scored poorly for site utilities and potential additional cost during development." "The property is already owned by the DOC and is adjacent to another 160-acre parcel owned by the DOC that can be used for future expansion or support functions," the report said. "This is a strong candidate for phase one development now. ... Lincoln County was followed on the ranking system by the Huron site, which also scored well, but is very remote and directly adjacent to a major highway. Our recommendation for site selection for phase 1 development of the men's capacity plan is the Lincoln County site."
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Report: Tough-on-crime policies could push prison construction costs as high as $2.1 billion
The Project Prison Reset group meets on April 3, 2025, at the Military Heritage Alliance in Sioux Falls. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight) South Dakota will need a third more prison space than it has now by 2036, and lawmakers' choice to pass a so-called truth in sentencing bill in 2023 is a major reason why. That's among the takeaways from a new report on the state's prison infrastructure that says the state would need to spend between $1.9 billion and $2.1 billion on new prisons to deal with an inmate population that's projected to swell in spite of the state's decreasing crime rate. The state needs a 1,700-bed men's prison immediately, the report from Arrington Watkins says. Even then, it says, another 1,500 beds for men will be necessary in a little more than 10 years, when it projects a prison population of more than 5,000 people. South Dakota corrections work group formally backs need for new prison The state signed a $729,000 contract with the Phoenix-based firm as part of 'Project Prison Reset,' a work group formed by gubernatorial fiat in the face of state lawmakers' refusal to back an $850 million, 1,500-bed men's prison in Lincoln County in February. Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen, chairman of the work group, said the report supports the group's first official vote last month, which was to conclude that the state does need at least one new prison. Venhuizen was quick to point out that the $2 billion price tag would only apply if the state followed the consultant's guidance to the letter and built two large prisons, but said the population projections lay bare the stakes of South Dakota's current approach to criminal justice. The work group's job is not to address the drivers of prison population growth, he said. But he also said he's glad the report took note of those driving forces. The truth in sentencing bill, SB 146, requires people convicted of violent offenses to serve between 85% and 100% of their sentences, depending on the category of their crime. As a legislator in 2023, Venhuizen voted against SB 146, and its potential to impact prison populations 'was part of the reason why.' 'Those decisions are not free. You have to strike a balance there,' Venhuizen said. 'If you're sending people to prison for longer, there is a cost to that.' The bill's author and prime sponsor, Republican former Sen. Brent Hoffman, has a different take on the legislation's impact on South Dakota's correctional needs. 'The real issue isn't SB 146, which protects the public by requiring violent criminals to serve their sentences,' said Hoffman, a supporter of term limits who served one term and opted against running for a second in 2024. 'The underlying, systemic problems are recidivism rates, wasteful spending, misguided priorities and incompetence, and those problems won't be solved by any consultant's report or politician's rhetoric.' Every correctional facility in South Dakota is beyond its capacity now. The South Dakota State Penitentiary was built in 1881 to house one inmate per cell, but holds twice as many. The proposed 1,500-bed facility in Lincoln County, mired in controversy over cost and necessity and still tied up in litigation over its location, was meant to replace the penitentiary. There are two other housing units on the penitentiary campus in Sioux Falls, however, and each of those faces its own issues with overcrowding. The maximum-security Jameson Annex, for example, is overbooked because it houses not only maximum security inmates, but those in disciplinary segregation and those with serious mental health needs. It's also the sorting zone for every new male inmate in the state system, where inmates stay as they're assessed for longer-term placement. With $50 million spent already, state hires new consultant to restart prison planning The Sioux Falls Minimum Center, meanwhile, holds 245 men in a building designed for 96. Even with a large but temporary drop during the COVID-19 pandemic, new admissions to Department of Corrections custody grew an average of 3.2% a year between 2015 and 2024, the report says. That's in spite of a crime rate in South Dakota that's lower than the national average and on the decline. The state's total population has gone the other direction, increasing by 0.9% a year since 2010. Much of the long-term factors built into the new report were present for its predecessor, a report from Omaha's DLR group that pointed to a 1,500-bed men's facility as one of several necessary projects for the DOC. Senate Bill 146 is a wrinkle that didn't exist for the DLR group, some portions of which were used by Arrington Watkins in its expedited, two-month repeat assessment. SB 146 ropes in fewer than 10% of the state's inmates, the report notes – drug offenses are the most common charge for which South Dakotans are imprisoned – but the inability of those convicted of violent offenses to be released before serving at least 85% of their sentence will have a long-term impact on prison population growth. 'Roughly half' of the 1,246 more inmates the report anticipates South Dakota will have by 2036 is attributable to SB 146. Parole violations are another driver of population growth, the report notes. About 45% of new admissions to the DOC came by way of parole violations in 2024, the report says, and 84% of those violations 'were technical in nature rather than new criminal charges.' Minnehaha County State's Attorney Daniel Haggar cautioned that technical parole violations often involve serious misbehavior, however. Technical violations include drug use, he said, as well as absconding – losing touch with a parole officer altogether. 'When those offenders are violent offenders or sex offenders this is a threat to public safety,' he said in an email to South Dakota Searchlight on Friday. The state has already spent more than $50 million on the Lincoln County site, although a share of that money could be clawed back by selling land or reusing aspects of the now-stalled prison's design. Governor relents, appoints task force to reset prison talks after legislative loss The new report's top recommendation is a 1,700-bed, Level V facility, built within 30 miles of the existing penitentiary to relieve crowding across the entirety of the men's prison system. It also recommends demolishing the 1881 penitentiary. 'Level V' is correctional nomenclature for maximum security. Former penitentiary warden Doug Weber wrote seven letters to lawmakers during the 2025 session urging them to say no to the 1,500-bed facility in Lincoln County, essentially a smaller version of what the new report says is necessary. The focus on the factors driving the state's prison population growth raises important questions, Weber told South Dakota Searchlight on Friday, but he disagrees strongly with its conclusions on how to remedy the situation. 'There's nobody in South Dakota, in my opinion, except a handful of people, maybe in Pierre, that would be comfortable spending $2.1 billion on buildings for the Department of Corrections,' said Weber. 'There are much better ways to spend money.' Weber called a Level V facility unnecessary and too expensive in a state where the number of maximum security inmates hovers around 200. He also bristles at the idea of knocking down the pen. Millions have been spent to maintain it in recent years, including for air conditioning less than five years ago, and Weber said it could easily serve as a minimum security facility by removing the cell doors and putting a single person in each cell. Republican Speaker of the House Jon Hansen, a work group member and candidate for governor in 2026, said 'there's absolutely no way that I will support spending that much money on prisons.' 'If we needed to be building new facilities, we should be looking at the current location in Sioux Falls for a lot less money,' Hansen said. Prison work group peppered with public testimony in first Sioux Falls meeting Madeline Voegeli, one of the neighbors to the Lincoln County site who sued the state over the issue, said in an email to Searchlight that the group has serious doubts about the veracity of the report's population projections. The DLR report, completed in 2022, suggested a 1,300-bed men's prison at a cost of around $608 million. Now, she wrote, 'we're being told to swallow a nearly quadrupled cost of up to $2.1 billion, largely driven by SB 146 and questionable population projections.' Voegeli accused the state of engaging in a 'pattern of inflating proposals to make a billion-dollar plan' – the original Lincoln County proposal – 'appear reasonable.' Venhuizen said arguments suggesting that the Lincoln County plan's supporters tried to tip the scale in the consultant's report are misplaced. 'It's not a strong position to assume that everyone who disagrees with you is being dishonest,' Venhuizen said. 'If you're doing that, you should probably examine the strength of your own arguments.' Rep. Karla Lems, a Canton Republican who's both a work group member and an avowed opponent of the Lincoln County proposal, said Friday that she's skeptical of the conclusions, as well. The work group is meant to deliver its recommendations to a special legislative session in July. The state, she said, needs to spend more time thinking about reducing repeat offenses before it decides what to build. Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls, is also a work group member. He said the state needs to think 'innovatively' on how to reduce prison populations, and that the report is a clear sign of how necessary that is. Mulder was one of the prime sponsors of a bill to change the penalty for first- and second-offense drug ingestion from a felony to a misdemeanor during the 2025 session. Too few prisoners are getting drug treatment, Mulder said, and he feels the state ought to consider partnering with nonprofits to extend treatment's reach both inside the prison and outside, for parolees. He also has questions about parole supervision practices. 'I would ask 'what's going on now with things like remote monitoring,'' Mulder said. 'It's a lot more effective for the state for someone so they can continue to be held accountable, but be held at home.' Mulder supported truth in sentencing and continues to, though. He said parole reforms make more sense. Reforms to truth in sentencing laws ought to be up for consideration, though, according to Zoë Towns, executive director of a bipartisan think tank called Her group pushes for changes to criminal justice and immigration policy. The knock-on effects of incarceration for families and communities are heavy, Towns said, and the returns for public safety diminish significantly when inmates don't have a chance to earn credit for good behavior – even when the people earning them committed violent offenses. 'What we should be asking is 'how long is incapacitation actually helpful?'' Towns said. 'What are the policies that are most likely to help people, when they come home, to contribute to their communities and local economies?' Addressing behavioral health needs and addiction early on are more effective ways to deal with crime than incarceration, she said, but other strategies are even further removed from criminal justice. Towns pointed to research from places like the Brookings Institute that suggest investments in youth education and public health offer long-term returns for public safety. 'It's literally after school and public school programs,' Towns said. 'That has a stronger homicide reduction rate than policing does. I'm not saying there's not a role for policing. I'm saying that actually, factually, in evidence, has a stronger return than sleeping in prison.' The next Project Prison Reset meeting is June 3 in Pierre. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
