PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden this morning released the draft legislation for a new men’s prison that is proposed in Sioux Falls.
It comes three weeks before the September 23 special legislative session that he called to deal with the topic.
The legislation aligns with the recommendations of the Project Prison Reset task force that he appointed in February.
The task force unanimously recommended that a new 1,500-bed men’s prison be built in Sioux Falls at a cost of no more than $650 million.
The legislation calls for transferring $78,778,932 from state government’s general revenue
replacement fund to the incarceration construction fund and then appropriating $650 million for construction of the prison.
The legislation also calls for purchasing three parcels of open land totaling 178.59 acres along Benson Road in northeastern Sioux Falls and selling 320 acres of land in Lincoln County where the new prison previously was proposed.
The state House of Representatives in February refused to give final approval for building the prison on the Lincoln County site. South Dakota’s previous governor, Kristi Noem, and her secretary of corrections, Kellie Wasko, had sought the Lincoln County location, which was strongly opposed by many people living in the area.
Rhoden, who replaced Noem in January after she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the federal government’s new Homeland Security secretary, then pivoted and appointed the task force, chaired by his new lieutenant governor, Tony Venhuizen.
Last week, Rhoden’s office released a FAQ page about the prison proposal. It notes that the new proposal will be 150,000 square feet smaller than the previous proposal, by having fewer housing units.
“The new plan streamlines housing by reducing seven housing units to four larger ones. Square footage is reduced not by cutting programming, but by eliminating excess hallway space and consolidating common areas across buildings,” the document says.
KELOLAND News has requested a rendering of the new plan. That will be made available in the coming days, according to the governor’s spokeswoman, Josie Harms.
Rhoden announced Wasko’s resignation as corrections secretary on Tuesday, effective next month. Her letter was dated Monday, the same day that a group of 20 Republican House members said the state Department of Corrections needed to be cleaned up and House Speaker Jon Hansen called for Wasko to step down.
The legislation sets a June 30, 2032, deadline to spend the $650 million. It also includes a section stating that no one being detained for deportation from the United States can be temporarily kept in the new prison.
A copy of the proposed legislation can be seen here. An explainer sheet from the governor’s office can be read here.
