John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight
The state Department of Corrections has decided to expand the number of allowable daily phone calls for inmates when tablet-based calling resumes on Friday after a pause that contributed to unrest at the penitentiary.
A memo posted Thursday to the DOC website says that starting April 5, inmates at its facilities will be allowed to make five calls a day, each with a limit of 20 minutes, from either wall phones or their tablets.
A memo earlier this week suggested that a resumption of tablet-based phone calls would be accompanied by a three-call daily limit – a move met with resistance by inmates and their loved ones.
The updated call limit is the latest turn in a month-long communications saga that has frustrated the families and friends of inmates and served as the spark for at least two nights of unrest and one staff injury at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
Tablet-based communications were suspended indefinitely on March 8 because of an unspecified investigation into tablet-enabled behavior that Gov. Kristi Noem would later describe as “nefarious.”
Until then, inmates and their families and friends had been able to use the contractor-provided tablets to send email-like messages and instant messages for fees. South Dakota has collected at least $1.25 million in commission for calls, emails and messages over the past three years through a combination of tablet- and landline-based communications.
The DOC acknowledged the shutdown publicly with a notice on its website 12 days later. One week after that, a disturbance at the penitentiary’s East Hall – one of two wings in the oldest parts of the 143-year-old facility – erupted, during which inmates could be heard yelling “we want phones.” Yelling could be heard in East Hall the following night, as well.
A correctional officer was injured on the first night, Gov. Noem said in a recorded interview. No update on that officer’s condition has been released.
A representative for state employees told South Dakota Searchlight that tablets alone cannot explain the unrest. He pointed to inconsistent discipline policies and other changes that may have emboldened prisoners to harm correctional officers.
A DOC officer statement shared with The Dakota Scout pointed to a slowdown in the disciplinary use of the Special Housing Unit – commonly known as “the hole” – as part of the the reason for the disturbance. The same letter accused the DOC of downplaying the severity of the incidents.
On Sunday, DOC staff received a memo saying calls from tablets could resume this week, but that inmates could make three per day from either their tablets or the wall phones at DOC facilities.
An inmate at the Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield told the Argus Leader that tensions had been rising over the three-call limit, and that he’d heard “guys talking about, you know, retaliating against — I don’t want to say it — non-inmates.”
The latest memo from Director of Prisons Amber Pirraglia says tablet-based calling will resume with a five-call daily limit “to promote offender communication with family and loved ones.”