John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight
SIOUX FALLS – The state Department of Corrections says an ongoing search for contraband is underway after a second night of unrest at South Dakota’s largest penal institution.
Tea Storm Chasers, a nonprofit media outlet based in Tea, started a livestream video of the incident shortly before midnight Thursday. As on Wednesday, the disruption centered on East Hall, one of two large cell blocks at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
At points in the 27-minute video, inmates can be heard yelling “we have rights,” and “water.” The noise had quieted by the end of the livestream, but the interior lights inside the cell block remained on until at least 3 a.m. The lights typically go out overnight, and were out in West Hall, located on the other side of the penitentiary.
A correctional officer was injured during a similar disruption on Wednesday, according to Gov. Kristi Noem. That incident was sparked by an attempt to confiscate inmate tablets, the governor said in a recorded interview, on which calling and messaging have been restricted since March 8 as a result of an investigation into what Noem called “nefarious” uses by some inmates.
Inmates could be heard chanting “we want phones” during the first incident, which began late in the afternoon. DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko sent a statement to media organizations at 8:30 p.m. that night to announce that order had been restored.
It’s unclear if any injuries to staff or inmates occurred in the second bout of unrest, which took place Thursday evening into early Friday morning.
On Friday evening, nearly 22 hours after the Tea Storm Chasers video appeared, DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko issued a statement on the Thursday situation.
“DOC staff began a thorough search of the State Penitentiary March 28th for illicit contraband in order to ensure the safety of the facility following a small group of offenders being disruptive. The search for contraband is ongoing,” the statement read. “Leadership at all levels has been engaged. We are proud of the professional and dedicated staff in Sioux Falls and volunteers from other facilities that are contributing to order and security.”
Attorney General Marty Jackley, through spokesman Tony Mangan, said the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was not called upon to respond to the overnight disruption, but that the agency would investigate the incident. Jackley offered a similar statement on Thursday about the initial incident in East Hall.
“It is the Attorney General’s intent to prosecute those responsible for any harm done to correctional officers, other inmates, and state property to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
State employee lobbyist: ‘Is it something larger?’
Eric Ollila, director of the South Dakota State Employees Organization, said he’d been in contact with several correctional officers about the Wednesday and Thursday incidents.
On Thursday, he said, the trouble apparently began when an inmate or inmates began to start fires in hopes of getting cell doors open.
The earlier issue was tied to tablets and began as a correctional officer tried to take a tablet from an inmate, Noem said. But Ollila said there was likely more behind the tension.
“I think we all knew, just from the coverage, that the tablets are apparently the issue. But is it a tablet thing, or is it something larger?” Ollila said. “What kinds of policies are in place that allow them to do this, and what impact do those policies have on the safety of the correctional officers?”
Inconsistent enforcement of disciplinary policies and a lack of steady communication about disciplinary measures from shift to shift have become common complaints from correctional officers, Ollila said.
Short staffing has long been a concern, but he said that raises and recently hired classes of recruits mean the state has “turned a corner” in that regard.
Ollila said officers have described the incidents to him as “disruptions,” rather than riots. Even so, he said, they raise questions about the safety of staff – something Noem and Wasko have said will be easier to insure in a proposed new, modern prison in Lincoln County.
The major question, he said, is “why do (the inmates) feel like they can get away with this?”
Former corrections secretary: ‘things can go south in a hurry’
State Rep. Tim Reisch, R-Howard, served as corrections secretary under former Gov. Mike Rounds. Reisch has not been in contact with the DOC about the incidents in Sioux Falls, but said he’s proud of how quickly order was restored on Wednesday and that he’s praying for the officers at the penitentiary.
“I applaud the DOC for getting things settled down,” Reisch said.
There is an inherent risk in corrections, Reisch told South Dakota Searchlight, in the mismatch between the number of officers and inmates in correctional facilities. If inmates “get the idea that they should be doing something stupid like acting out, things can go south in a hurry,” he said.
The current situation, Reisch said, hearkens back to something that took place at Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield during his time with the prison system.
“I remember when we went from getting two cartons of milk a day to one carton of milk a day, we had kind of a mini-riot down in Springfield,” Reisch said. “They were yelling out the windows there, just like they were in this deal.”
It doesn’t take but a few inmates acting out for the behavior to spread, he said. That’s true on the outside, as well, he said, like in situations where a handful of people might vandalize property during a protest and inspire others to cross a line.
“People will do things in a group they’d never consider doing on their own,” he said.
Future of tablets
The tablets that helped spark the current dispute were not a factor for Reisch, as they arrived after his tenure. He doesn’t have a position on their use in prisons, he said, but did offer that electronic communications can mitigate problems that sometimes appear in letters and packages.
“You can’t send drugs through an iPad,” Reisch said.
The tablets are not iPads, but have some similar functions and operate in what’s meant to be a secure and closed network. The tablets are provided to the state at no cost by its communications contractor in exchange for a share of the revenue generated by payments for messaging, phone calls and other services.
But Noem said Thursday that they’d been used for illegal purposes, and that the state needs to “see if it’s possible for prisoners to have these tablets and have them not be used for nefarious reasons.”
Ollila, the state employees representative, said there are questions that need to be addressed with the tablets, which were updated last year across DOC facilities.
“I think maybe the technology has leaped over the security features, and we really need to get a handle on that,” Ollila said.
Jason Zaharris hopes the DOC finds a way to keep them. He was in prison in South Dakota until 2022. He didn’t spend much time on “The Hill,” as many call the penitentiary, before being transferred to a lower-security unit. But he said the tablets are especially important for inmates at higher security levels, such as the Jamison Annex.
“When you’re on the Hill or in Jamison, 95% of your communications are done with your loved one on the tablets because you’re locked down so much,” Zaharris said. “Kristi Noem is saying ‘oh, they still have access to phones on the wall.’ Well, okay, yeah, that’s technically true. But we’re talking about 1,000-plus inmates with maybe two to three hours a day to have access to those phones.”
Zaharris credits daily communication with his family for his current success. He’s sober, he said, living in the Washington, D.C. area where he owns a junk removal company and works two other jobs. Keeping in touch with his support system helped him lay the groundwork for the life he has today, he said.
“If I hadn’t talked to my family on those tablets every day, multiple times a day, and if it wasn’t for that communication, then I would probably be back in that prison,” Zaharris said. “But I was able to communicate with them, I was able to know that they were willing to help me if I was willing to do the work, and that’s exactly how it worked out.”