Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight
The South Dakota Department of Corrections hired Eric Aldridge as warden of the Rapid City women’s prison, the department announced on Friday.
The $87 million facility, which is South Dakota’s second women’s prison, is under construction and expected to open in July.
Aldridge, most recently warden of the medium-security Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Virginia, will begin his job in South Dakota on April 1.
Aldridge has also worked as a rehabilitation counselor, security assessment analyst and in facility leadership positions, according to the department. Aldridge said he plans to “implement industry best practices” at the new facility.
“My focus is on positive change and improving the lives of offenders so that they will re-enter society as productive citizens,” Aldridge said in a news release.
The Rapid City prison, designed for minimum and medium-security inmates, will house up to 300 women. The facility will also house a mother-infant program for up to 12 mothers.
The prison will help ease overcrowding at an existing women’s prison in Pierre, which will continue to operate.
The new facility will incorporate a therapeutic community model for substance use disorder treatment. That means women will receive four to five hours of intervention and support daily from medical, behavioral health and vocational professionals.
More than half of imprisoned women in the state have drug convictions, and more than 90% have substance use disorders, according to state reports.
Department of Corrections Secretary Nick Lamb said the model will be a “first-of-its-kind” program in the state.
“We have not used this model in our other facilities because of a lack of available programming space,” Lamb said in a news release. “This modern facility allows us to do so.”
Women in the prison will also have the chance to participate in a business-entrepreneurship program and earn a certificate in hospitality training.
Other positions are still being staffed, including security, case management, medical and behavioral health services.
Meanwhile, the state is preparing to build a $650 million men’s prison in northeast Sioux Falls. It will replace the oldest parts of the Sioux Falls penitentiary, which dates to 1881.