20-02-2025
Derby: House will vote Friday on new prison
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Whether a new men's prison will be built in Lincoln County could come down to what the South Dakota House of Representatives decides on Friday.
The Legislature's Joint Committee on Appropriations after a one-hour hearing voted unanimously on Thursday to send House Bill 1025 forward to the House with no recommendation.
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Republican Rep. Mike Derby made the motion.
'This will be one of the largest projects in the history of the state of South Dakota, and this deserves to be heard by the entire body on an up and down vote on the floor tomorrow,' Derby said.
No other legislator spoke.
The guaranteed maximum price of $825 million expires on March 31. The legislation needs a two-thirds majority in each chamber — 47 in the House and 24 in the Senate — to reach Gov. Larry Rhoden's desk.
Earlier Thursday, House Republican leader Scott Odenbach and House Republican assistant leader Karla Lems indicated it's unclear whether there would be enough support to move HB 1025 to the Senate, in part because there are so many new representatives.
The two sides on HB 1025 received equal time during the hearing to make their presentations to appropriators, followed by a seven-minute rebuttal from state Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko.
The project received favorable testimony from Wasko, governor's senior aide Ryan Brunner, state Department of Corrections finance director Brittni Skipper, state engineer Stacy Watters, and lobbyists for the South Dakota Sheriffs Association, South Dakota State's Attorneys Association and South Dakota Police Chiefs Association.
Testifying against the legislation were former House speaker Steve Haugaard, who is a Sioux Falls lawyer, as well as others including Madeline Voegeli, Don Jacobs and Dan Paulson.
The proposed 1,500-bed facility in Lincoln County would replace the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls and would also accept inmates now housed at the neighboring Jameson Annex. Haugaard said he's been inside the current facilities 'hundreds of times' and described the Jameson unit as 'perfectly adequate.'
Haugaard focused instead on recidivism rates that in recent years, he said, have gone from 40.3% to 44%, which he described as 'not an effective corrections policy.' Haugaard argued that the existing building has adequate space — 'It's perfectly suitable to get the job done if you hire the staff you need.' — and said that if the department 'jacked those wages up, you'd see people applying.'
'I'd say failure at recidivism is the problem,' Haugaard said. 'That building has zero to do with effective corrections policy.' He said building a minimum/medium-security facility for men in western South Dakota instead would be the best step at this time.
Paulson is a member of a citizens group that calls itself NOPE — No Prison Expansion — that has a lawsuit pending before the South Dakota Supreme Court. He asked the legislators to consider what happens if they approve the Lincoln County site and the court then rules in NOPE's favor. 'You'd be in a pickle,' Paulson said.
Wasko spent much of her rebuttal time responding to Haugaard's arguments, starting with recidivism rates.
'We haven't stopped anythng. We're limited in what we can do,' Wasko said. She explained that the current facility allows rehabilitation classes for 12 inmates at a time in a facility that currently has more than 800. The new facility will have 25 behavioral health and 16 educational FTEs, she said.
As to wages, Wasko said the DOC correctional officers now receive pay that puts them 'neck and neck' with those at the Minnehaha County jail. She said the staff vacancy rate has dropped to 10%, the lowest in a decade, in large part because the Legislature raised pay two years ago.
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