SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Dorm-style pieces of a possible project reduces the overall cost of most of the prison plans the Project Prison Reset Task Force is expected to review on Tuesday.
14 options were submitted to the task force from consultants JE Dunn and Henry Carlson Construction. The least expensive was a $622.8 million project using land owned by Sweetman Partners LLP, Sioux Falls. This design includes a 300-bed dorm-style unit and a separate 900-bed cell unit.
The Sweetman site is 140 total acres in two parcels near North Bahnson Avenue and not far from Gage Brothers in northeastern Sioux Falls.
Dorm-style units are typically for minimum or low-risk offenders, such as the plan for a new men’s campus in Nebraska. According to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, the new plan includes 400 maximum beds, 512 medium beds and 600 minimum beds and received a construction bid of $313 million for a site near Lincoln.
The task force In June asked the consultant to design plans for a roughly 1,500-bed to 1,700-bed project at a cost of about $600 million. The $622.8 million plan and a second one nearly meet that budget.
A 1,188-cell facility of three 396 T cell units on the Sweetman property has an estimated cost of $637.4 million. This does not include a dorm-style facility.
Dorm-style units are also included in a $702.9 million proposal using the Sweetman site for 900 cell beds and 600 dorm beds.
Additional plans using a dorm facility at the Sweetman site include a $717.5 million proposal with 1,188 cell beds and a 300-dorm-style unit.
A $724.5 million plan using the Sweetman site has 1,200 cells and a 300-bed dorm facility.
Increasing the number of total beds to 1,500 while also increasing a greater share of dorm-style beds put the cost at $702.9 million for the Sweetman site. This was for 900 cell beds and 600 dorm-style beds.
The North Farm effect
The task force wanted the consultant to consider plans for DOC-owned property such as the North Farm but also at other campuses. The consultant was also to consider sites near Worthing and Mitchell. Possible sites in Worthing and Mitchell have received negative response from some members of the public and some community leaders.
The North Farm is about 28 acres north of the men’s prison in Sioux Falls. It is the site closest to the prison but it is separated from the prison by a diversion channel and the city’s bicycle path.
The most expensive plan for South Dakota is $887.1 million for a 1,100 Level IV bed cell plan with two occupants with three 300-bed units of Level V on the Sweetman site and a 400-bed Level V cell facility on the North Farm site of the existing men’s prison. This plan calls for a bridge at the North Farm site to cross the diversion channel.
A 400-bed Level V unit of two of 200-bed cell units at the North Farm along with a 1,100-bed Level IV facility of three 300-bed cell units near Mitchell, is estimated at $857.6 million.
A 1,100-bed Level IV cell bed unit near Worthing, along with a 400-bed Level V cell facility at the North Farm ,is estimated to cost $876.9 million.
The Mike Durfee piece
A $703.3 million plan includes 300 dorm-style beds at Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield and a 1,200-level IV cell beds on the Sweetman site.
A three-piece combination using Mitchell, the North Farm and Mike Durfee is a $833.6 million project. This would be 800 Level IV cell beds in Mitchell, two each of a 200 bed Level 5 cell facility at the North Farm and a 300 bed dorm-style facility at Mike Durfee.
If the a 300-bed dorm-style security facility is built at Mike Durfee and a Level IV 1,200-bed cell facility is built at the Worthing site, the estimated cost is $723.7 million.
A Mitchell site of 1,200 Level IV cell beds with a 300-bed dorm-style facility at Mike Durfee is estimated to cost $704 million.
A three-piece combination of Worthing, Mike Durfee and the North Farm is estimated at $860 million. This would be for 800 Level IV cell beds in Worthing, 400 Level V at the North Farm and 300 dorm style beds at Mike Durfee.
A 1,200-bed Level IV facility in Worthing with a 300-bed dorm-style facility at Mike Durfee would cost an estimated $723.7 million.
Another option for the Sweetman property is closer to an earlier plan proposed for the South Dakota Department of Corrections, that was 1,500 beds at a guaranteed maximum price of $826 million. This option is for 1,188 cell beds with double occupancy. These would be in three 396 T-housing units.
If 1,500 beds are broken up with 800 Level IV on the Sweetman property, 400 Level V on the North Farm and 300 dorm-style beds at Mike Durfee, the estimated cost is $831.9 million.
What about the Benson Road site?
Task force member Rep. Greg Jamison took three Sioux Falls City Council members on an informational tour of three possible sites in Sioux Falls on Wednesday, July 2. Two of those, the Sweetman property and the North Farm, are included in the 14 proposed options.
A third site on Jamison’s tour near Benson Road and just south of the Sioux Falls Area Humane society was submitted to the task force on July 2.
Jamison said on July 2 that the Benson Road site and the Sweetman property were two sites he favored for the prison project. He said they would both likely be strongly considered by the task force.
Although the Benson Road site was not included in a design option, it appears that it can still be considered.
Jamison told KELOLAND News on Monday that any plan that included the Sweetman Partners site could be considered for the Benson Road site.
A comment by task force chairman and Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen in an email he sent to the task force on Thursday, July 3, reinforces Jamison’s Monday comment. KELOLAND News received a copy of the email.
“As I mentioned in my last email, the most recent submission, the Benson Road site, was received too late to include in these options, but as it is nearby the Sweetman site we can assume similar cost scenarios for our purposes,” Venhuizen said in the email.
The prices do not break down costs for any land purchase or site preparation or analysis.
The state of Nebraska had a reported $17 million contract to buy land in Lincoln in 2023 but later swapped that land with land owned by the city of Lincoln. It completed the purchase before the land swap.
