Amid discussion of new prisons, some South Dakota lawmakers on budget panel call for reforms

A comparison with North Dakota caused some lawmakers on South Dakota’s legislative budget committee to say Tuesday that changes are needed to curb high incarceration numbers.

The discussion came as South Dakota prepares to build a new men’s prison near Sioux Falls and a new women’s prison in Rapid City, for a combined estimated cost of around $800 million.

“I would dare say it’s probably not too late for the Legislature to pivot maybe in their philosophy for how we handle things in the state of South Dakota,” said Rep. Mike Derby, R-Rapid City, the co-chair of the Appropriations Committee.

Rep. Linda Duba, D-Sioux Falls, agreed.

“It is time for us as a state to look at how we are focusing on individuals who are incarcerated, and how we help them reenter society,” she said.

Sen. Jim Bolin, R-Canton, added “the cost of incarceration is very high for a state that doesn’t like to tax very much.”

The bipartisan sentiment was shared as Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko and lawmakers discussed the price tags associated with new prison construction.

The Legislature has set aside $567 million over the past several years for the men’s prison that the state plans to build in rural Lincoln County, south of Sioux Falls and Harrisburg. Wasko said the full price for the new men’s prison should be known in the coming months, but did not offer an estimate. During the most recent legislative session, the Bureau of Finance and Management said the cost could grow to $700 million.

The men’s prison will largely replace the 143-year-old penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Meanwhile, the state is also planning and has set aside money for an $87 million women’s prison in Rapid City, to ease overcrowding at the women’s prison in Pierre.

With an incarceration rate of 824 per 100,000 residents as of 2021, the state was locking up a higher percentage of its people than any democratic country on earth, according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Prison Policy Initiative.

Derby said he heard North Dakota had half as many people incarcerated as South Dakota, despite the states having similar populations.

“Is there maybe things we can do legislatively that would reduce the future number of inmates?” he asked.

“It’s actually a little stunning,” Wasko said, regarding the differences between North Dakota and South Dakota. “You’re correct. South Dakota has about double the number of incarcerated inmates as North Dakota.”

Wasko said North Dakota has about 1,850 inmates compared to South Dakota’s 3,800. But North Dakota’s focus on probation and other methods to keep people out of prison has come with a cost: North Dakota has 2,200 correctional employees, compared to South Dakota’s 1,100, and North Dakota spends $220 million annually on corrections, compared to $145 million in South Dakota, according to Wasko.

Wasko said North Dakota has “a very robust probation program and a lot of pre-sentencing programs that South Dakota does not have.”

“North Dakota is investing in the corrections philosophy, and I think we’re catching up,” she said. “I think it’s just, with our institutions and some of our policies, I think that South Dakota is catching up.”

She also said there are differences in sentencing.

“Again, I don’t have to remind anybody, South Dakota is the only state in the United States that has ingestion as a mandatory minimum of two years in prison,” Wasko said.

Wasko said the highest convicted crime for 241 prisoners in South Dakota is drug ingestion, and 236 of them are serving the maximum sentence of five years.

Duba reflected on a failed bill to roll back the state’s ingestion sentencing law in 2020.

“And of course, it died painfully in committee,” she said. “Unfortunately, there is a mentality in our state right now – it resides with a group of people – that, ‘let’s just lock them up,’ versus, ‘let’s rehabilitate them.’”

Derby said it’s not too late for change.

“In the business world, if I had this information, I’d be making different decisions,” he said.

According to the Council of State Governments Justice Center, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed laws in 2017 that focused on reducing jail time for people who committed minor crimes or broke probation rules. The state also spent $7.5 million to improve community behavioral health services and increase the number of providers through the Free Through Recovery program. By mid-2022, 2,700 people had participated in the program.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Some South Dakota lawmakers on budget panel call for prison reforms