PIERRE, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The Project Prison Reset Task Force met in Pierre for its third of four scheduled meetings.
The Task Force went through a consultant report by Arrington Watkins Architects in which the firm went through a variety of different locations and said what locations are possible and what locations aren’t.
The report analyzed how many beds the state will need to house inmates over the next ten years.
The state is looking for a site that holds between 1500-1728 beds. This total would include inmates under minimum, medium and close custody levels.
While the committee focused on singular facility location options, some people testified that implementing the new beds could be done by adding to existing locations rather than building one costly new one.
“Are we going to add a fifth location, which spreads out the need for employees or do we just say we’re going to add x numbers of beds at each one of the locations and expand on what we’re doing well at each one of the other locations,” said Canton State Senator Kevin Jensen.
Some of the locations the firm recommended include the Lincoln County site as the best location, followed by Huron, Mitchell and the CitiBank location in Sioux Falls.
The task force ultimately narrowed down its focus to the Mitchell and Worthing locations and any property owned by the Department of Corrections (DOC).
A motion was made and approved by the committee to keep costs for the new prison at $600 million for all construction.
Under this cost, the prison will likely have a lifespan of fifty years in order to accommodate a minimum of 1500 total beds.
The committee said they need to make a decision fast as costs are rising. Vance McMillan, the Senior Vice President for JE Dunn Construction, the company hired to build the originally proposed prison, said it will be tough to work under the $600 million price but they’re ready to give it a shot.
Representative Tim Reisch (R) Howard approved of the motion but said he did not agree to it being a final decision and that there are organizational issues in the DOC that need to be addressed.
“I have serious concerns with how the DOC is being run, we’ve had serious assaults on our staff,” Reisch said.
Representative Erin Healy and Senator Jaime Smith insisted that at the next meeting, addressing recidivism should be heavily discussed.
When asked whether or not the budget for the prison will properly address the fights and recidivism in South Dakota’s prison system, Lieutenant Governor Tony Venhuizen said those are issues that are outside the scope of the task force but that a new prison regardless will make a big difference.
“Our job here is to address the fact that we need a new prison and solve our overcrowding issue,” Venhuizen said.
The committee’s next meeting will be on July 8 in Sioux Falls.