SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota’s top law enforcement officer, who sits on a task force examining where to recommend putting a new men’s prison, is sharing the kind of price tag he wants to see: a cost that’s notably different from a previous guaranteed maximum price as well as a fraction of what a recent consultant report recommends.
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In February, South Dakota lawmakers voted down House Bill 1025, which would have appropriated money to build a new 1,512 men’s prison in Lincoln County with a guaranteed maximum price of $825 million. The failure paved the way for Project Prison Reset and the consultant report which includes a recommendation to build a 1,728-bed replacement for the current penitentiary. The report also recommends building an additional prison or prisons and adding beds to the Sioux Falls Minimum Center. Per the report, this could all cost up to $2.1 billion.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who sits on the task force, is targeting a price that’s notably lower.
“I think there are several proposals out there,” Jackley said Tuesday. “The ones that I’m more interested in fall in that $525 million range, ’cause again, for me this is about protecting not just the public, but the taxpayers.”
That cost, Jackley says, would still pay for 1,500 beds. At the task force’s most recent meeting, the group unanimously voiced approval to replace the current penitentiary. Still on Gov. Larry Rhoden’s to-do list for the group is figuring out how big this facility should be and where it should go.
“We’ve got two meetings left before a special session,” Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar said Tuesday. “I think it’s important for us to address those questions that the governor has tasked us with. There’s going to be a lot of conversation, and we’ve seen things can move slowly. They can also move quickly.”
Haggar is also on the task force. As of Tuesday, he hasn’t landed on a specific location.
“I’m not quite there yet,” Haggar said. “I haven’t ruled anything out.”
As for Jackley, he says locations already within the Department of Corrections’ orbit are possible.
“It could be utilizing existing facilities, and when I say utilizing existing facilities, that’s Jameson, that’s the Hill, that’s Springfield,” Jackley said. “It’s areas that already exist so you don’t have some of the community pushback.”
The task force’s next meeting is June 3 in Pierre. Eventually, the plan is for a special session of the state legislature to learn on July 22 about the group’s recommendations.
