Latest news with #Mehlhaff
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Task force reacts to inmate assault reports
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into reports of several assaults on the South Dakota State Penitentiary's campus this week. This latest incident concerns Project Prison Reset task force members for a number of reasons. 'Where we're at today, that opportunity for those inmates to injure a correctional officer exists, and we need to eliminate that,' South Dakota Republican Representative Greg Jamison said. Jamison said Tuesday's reports reflect the challenges prison staff face when it comes to separating inmates inside the current men's prison facilities. In a news release, Attorney General Marty Jackley says, ' Evidence suggests that the assaults are gang related.' 'One of the challenges with the prison is to separate those gang members or opposing gang members, if you will, so they never wind up in the same area at the same time because these fights are probably inevitable,' Jamison said. South Dakota Republican Senator Jim Mehlhaff worries the current facilities are not safe for staff or prisoners. 'Just the design of it. Blind corners and dead ends,' Mehlhaff said. 'It's difficult to put prisoners where they need to be because of the overcrowding.' The issue is what sometimes leads to inmate fights. 'Imagine you're in a space, as you can appreciate, in a crowded area, and all of a sudden you start pushing and somebody pushes back. It turns into a fight pretty easy,' Jamison said. 'That overcrowding piece has just got to get fixed, and the new prison is going to eliminate that.' It's one of the task force's top priorities when it comes to building a new men's prison. Having more rehabilitation resources is important, too. 'We don't want to take people off the streets and just hold them indefinitely and put them back out on the streets to recidivate again,' Mehlhaff said. 'A new prison is going to be a safer place for the employees. That's one of the things I'm hopeful for and I'm looking for,' Jamison said. 'The current setup right now is not a safe place.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
2 task force members say prison, site must fit needs
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Several members of a prison task force said a new men's prison and its site need to fit the needs of staff and offenders. Task force member Republican Sen. Jim Mehlhaff said he doesn't want the state to pursue a project that fits only a few years with a need to address additional issues. 'If we do that, we've failed,' Mehlhaff said. A prison project is something the state wants to do every 50 to 100 years, he said. The task force is reviewing a study of the prison and recommendations to replace the existing men's prison in Sioux Falls. Consultant Arrington Watkins has done the study and one its recommendations is to build a 1,500 to 1,700 bed facility as soon as possible. The task force will also evaluate potential sites, narrow down those sites and the consultant will develop a plan based on those potential sites. The potential site includes a location in Lincoln County between Harrisburg and Canton that has received strong opposition. 'The existing prison is a horrible place for staff and inmates,' task force member Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead said. Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken and Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum both said in a letter obtained by KELOLAND News Wednesday that they did not support possible sites in Sioux Falls. They did support the original site in Lincoln County and another possible site near Worthing. 'The one thing I'd say about sites, clearly, there is strong objection to the Lincoln County site,' Milstead said. Milstead described it as Not In My Backyard or NIMBY. He understands that those who are opposed may be living in lifetime rural homes or have had farms passed down through generations. And that they were surprised to learn a prison could be built in the area. Yet, 'If you looked at the sites in Sioux Falls, there are hundreds of not thousands who live in the general area,' Milstead said. He's heard 'significant strong' opposition to several sites in Sioux Falls from neighboring residents and businesses, Milstead said. Mehlhaff said some of the proposed sites will be easier to eliminate such as in Grant County near Big Stone City. 'That proposal is getting robust push back,' he said. Even so, the site is too far away, Mehlhaff said. For example, it's impractical and too far if inmates are transported from Pennington County, he said. He's also concerned about available workforce and medical services. Mehlhaff was asked specifically about the former Citibank site in Sioux Falls. Lawmaker and task force member Republican Sen. Chris Karr recently told South Dakota Searchlight that the Citibank property was 'almost turn-key.' 'In my mind there are a lot of hurdles before that becomes a viable option,' Mehlhaff said of the Citibank property. The property could provide for some prison needs but does not believe the buildings could be used for inmate housing, Mehlhaff said. '…it would not take care of all of our needs,' he said. The Arrington Watkins report also cited a 2023 law which requires offenders of certain violent crimes to serve 100% of their sentences and others to serve 85% of their sentences as a major factor in increasing the prison population. The report recommended the state build a second 1,700 project because of the expected increase in the prison population because of longer mandatory sentences. Milstead said it's too soon to estimate the impact of the 2023 law Senate Bill 246 called Truth in Sentencing. Before the 2023 law, judges may have sentenced an offender to 15 years and the offender may have only served two. Because of the 2023 judges may decide to sentence the offender to five years knowing they'd serve the full five or to two years knowing the offender would serve the full two years, Milstead said. Those scenarios would not necessarily increase the prison population, he said. Still, he said, the law's impact will need to be monitored, Milstead said. But, the task force is not responsible for recommending program changes or additions or to weigh in on policy, he said. The task force's role is to deal with the need for a prison, select a project and site to recommend to the Legislature, Milstead said. In a Tuesday KELOLAND News story, task force members Democrat Sen. Jamie Smith and Democrat Rep. Erin Healy said prison policies including the 2023 Senate Bill 246 law need to be studied. A prison may be needed but the state must also find ways to better prevent crime and improve chances at an offender's reentry in to the community, they said. A summer study is planned for prison policies and sentencing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
April 2 prison meeting to have public input, Pen tour
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakotans now have a clearer picture of what 'Project Prison Reset' will look like. After a legislative effort to appropriate money to build a new men's prison in Lincoln County failed this year, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden announced the new path on Feb. 27. The effort will see a group of lawmakers and other officials examining three questions, as Rhoden outlined in February. 'Number one, do we need a prison,' Rhoden said Feb. 27. 'And I think the answer is a clear yes, and this group should agree. Number two, how big should the new prison be, and number three, where should that prison be built. We will hire a consultant to make sure that we're all working from the same set of facts.' The original plan was for the group to first meet on April 2 in Pierre, but that meeting will now be in Sioux Falls. Thursday, Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, who is on the newly-formed task force, provided an outline of what will happen. 'On April 2nd and 3rd the plan is to tour the penitentiary, visit the Lincoln County site, take public testimony, and that's kind of the rough outline of what we'll be doing over those two days,' Mehlhaff said. Route 13 Fire is currently 50 percent contained When KELOLAND News asked the governor on Feb. 27 if the previously proposed site between Harrisburg and Canton remained the administration's preference, Rhoden said anything is possible. The task force is set to meet every four weeks, with at least four gatherings planned. And come July 22, the plan is for a special session of the legislature to learn about the task force's recommendations. Among the individuals announced in February as members of the task force were Republican Rep. Jon Hansen, Scott Odenbach, Karla Lems, Tim Reisch, Greg Jamison, Brian Mulder and Jack Kolbeck, Democratic Rep. Erin Healy, Republican Sen. Chris Karr, Mehlhaff, Ernie Otten, Mark Lapka, Steve Kolbeck and Joy Hohn, Democratic Sen. Jamie Smith, Yankton Police Chief Jason Foote, Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead and Minnehaha County State's Attorney Daniel Haggar. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Carbon pipeline eminent domain ban advances to SD House; ‘compromise' bill gutted
Supporters of House Bill 1052 dressed in yellow fill the South Dakota Senate State Affairs room before a committee hearing on March 3, 2025. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) PIERRE — South Dakota Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff – and a carbon dioxide pipeline proposal – took a political beating Monday morning at the Capitol. The Pierre Republican watched the House State Affairs committee reject his legislation, which he described as a 'compromise' on eminent domain use for pipelines, only to have the same committee revive the bill and amend it into an anti-eminent domain measure. An hour later, more than 150 opponents of a controversial carbon pipeline murmured and laughed in agreement when he told the packed room he'd 'get run over' for opposing a ban on eminent domain for the project. A proposed ban advanced out of another legislative committee Monday. 'I'm going to stand tall all the way because I think it's a terrible piece of legislation,' Mehlhaff said of the ban in an interview with South Dakota Searchlight. Summit Carbon Solutions isn't named in the legislation, but it came in response to the Iowa company's proposed $9 billion, five-state pipeline that would pass through eastern South Dakota. It would collect carbon dioxide emitted by more than 50 ethanol plants and transport it for underground storage in North Dakota, to capitalize on federal tax credits incentivizing the prevention of heat-trapping emissions into the atmosphere. Mehlhaff was one of two votes against House Bill 1052 in the Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday morning. Sen. Arch Beal, R-Sioux Falls, also voted against the legislation, which would prohibit eminent domain use for carbon pipelines. Seven other committee members voted for the bill, which will head to the Senate floor next. It's already passed the House of Representatives. Eminent domain is a legal process for obtaining land access from unwilling landowners with just compensation determined by a court, for a project beneficial to the public — traditionally for projects such as electrical power lines, crude oil pipelines, water pipelines and highways. A swarm of landowners clad in yellow testified in support of HB 1052, the latest in a string of bills targeting the carbon capture pipeline in the last several years. Sen. Mark Lapka, R-Leola, spoke as the prime sponsor for the bill. Lapka is a property owner, farmer and rancher. He said the bill wouldn't kill the project but would simply prohibit it from using eminent domain to pressure landowners. 'Should eminent domain be a tool in my toolbelt used to enrich myself for my own wellbeing?' Lapka said. 'I don't think so.' Lapka and other critics of the Summit pipeline proposal view its potential use of eminent domain as a threat to private property rights. Pipeline opponents also have concerns about potential leaks, which could result in toxic carbon dioxide plumes. Mehlhaff and other opponents of the legislation said it would be a 'kill shot' to the pipeline project and to the positive economic impact it would have on South Dakota, corn farmers and the ethanol industry. Banning eminent domain for pipelines is 'the most important issue of the year,' said House Speaker Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, when he suggested reviving and significantly amending Mehlhaff's Senate Bill 198 after the House State Affairs Committee voted unanimously to defeat the bill. The original legislation would have retained eminent domain as an option, but required entities using it to first attend mediation with the affected landowner and to also have a Public Utilities Commission permit before commencing eminent domain proceedings. The amended version of the bill duplicates the language of HB 1052, the bill banning eminent domain for carbon pipelines. Hansen anticipates 'hostile, unfriendly' amendments to HB 1052 on the Senate floor. One amendment posted on the Legislative Research Council's website would ban eminent domain unless a project obtains a permit from the Public Utilities Commission and over two-thirds of easements needed for the pipeline route. 'I'd like to have an ace in the hole just in case things go off the rails over there,' Hansen said. The amendment passed 9-4. Rep. Tim Reisch, R-Howard, opposed the amendment and called it a 'bait and switch' maneuver, adding that Summit's eligibility to use eminent domain is being litigated in state courts. 'I think this is just underhanded,' Reisch said. 'This is not how we should be doing business in the people's house.' The committee plans to reconsider the amended bill on Wednesday, after the Senate decides the fate of HB 1052. Other bills challenging the pipeline project are still alive in the Legislature, including a proposed moratorium on carbon pipelines until the completion of new federal safety standards, and a bill that would authorize lawsuits by landowners who allege they've suffered from deception, fraud, harassment, intimidation or misrepresentation by a land agent for a carbon pipeline company. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ag groups support 67% threshold for CO2 easements
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — There's another option for eminent domain as it relates to the proposed carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline in South Dakota. The South Dakota Farm Bureau (SDFB) and the South Dakota Corn Growers Association (SDCGA) said they support a legislative proposal that would require CO2 pipeline companies secure voluntary easements for at least 67% of the pipeline before invoking eminent domain. Those provisions are now proposed in an amended version of Senate Bill 198, whose prime sponsor now is Republican Sen. Jim Mehlhaff. He chairs the Senate State Affairs Committee, which recommended on a 5-3 vote this week that the full Senate approve SB 198. A key piece of Mehlhaff's bill is that it would apply to any party seeking to use eminent domain to route a project across someone else's property. The full Senate is scheduled to debate SB 198 today. SD Senate votes to maintain child marriage A news release from both agriculture organizations cites House Bill 1052 which passed 49 to 19 in the House on Jan. 27. HB1052 would prohibit the use of eminent domain for a pipeline that carries carbon oxide. Senate passage of SB 198 this afternoon would mean each legislative chamber has its own version of how to reform eminent domain. Landowner rights and eminent domain as it relates to CO2 pipelines have been the subject of much discussion for several years as originally, two companies proposed CO2 pipelines that would travel through the state. As of Friday, Summit Carbon Solutions is the only company that has proposed a CO2 pipeline in the state. A few hundred miles of a CO2 pipeline would travel through the state as it gathers CO2 from partner ethanol plants for planned burial in North Dakota. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission will hold evidentiary hearings on the proposed project in August. On Wednesday, Senate Bill 49 which would have prohibited the exercise of the right of eminent domain for the construction of certain facilities and address the preemption of zoning requirement failed in the Senate State Affairs. The legislative list of bills for 2025 also included several other eminent domain or pipeline-related bills. Discussions on HB1052 on Jan. 27 included comments about the safety concerns of CO2 pipelines, how the federal government doesn't have money to support tax credits and similar for projects like CO2 sequestration. Those against HB1052 said the pipeline will have a positive economic impact, it will protect the ethanol industry because it will reduce the industry's carbon footprint and allow it to sell more fuel in carbon-restrictive markets. The summit will use 45Q for its proposed pipeline. The 45Q program is a tax credit program for carbon sequestration or carbon capture. Not only are those in the ethanol industry interested in 45Q, oil industry companies are also interested. Within industry media, there is discussion about oil industry investment in carbon capture. Other discussion includes states pursuing permits for CO2 sequestration wells. A version of this credit has been in place since George W. Bush's presidency and in 2025, it has billions of dollars attached to it. Some early indications are that the Trump Administration favors carbon capture. Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum mentioned carbon capture in his confirmation testimony. Burgum is the former governor of North Dakota. President Donald Trump expanded use of 45Q during his first term in office. Capitol Bureau reporter Bob Mercer contributed to this story. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
