Austin Goss-South Dakota Broadcasters Association
The latest skirmish in South Dakota’s years long bid to build a new prison pitted opponents and supporters Wednesday, ending in a stalemate.
The House State Affairs Committee voted 12-1 to send House Bill 1025 to the House Appropriations Committee. It did not go with a recommendation on whether the prison should receive funding.
The measure is what would drag the proposed prison site, slated for construction between Harrisburg and Canton, out of the planning stages and into reality. It moves $763 million out of the state’s incarceration construction fund to the facility that’s slated to cost roughly $825 million.
“This is not a new conversation,” said Gov. Larry Rhoden’s Senior Policy Advisor Ryan Brunner, defending the decision used to pick the site. “We have had six different bills that have passed funding for this project, and all along the plan has remained the same.”
That plan calls for building a 1,500-bed facility on 160 acres, replacing the current state penitentiary in Sioux Falls about 20 miles to the north. Executive branch officials plan to tap into the Sioux Falls labor market to staff the prison.
Beyond building the facility itself, the project will require other improvements, including road improvements and utility services, like sewer, to the site that is at present a state-owned farm field.
“We get one chance at this. We are building an over 100-year facility,” said Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko. “Something that is going to last through tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes.”
Lobbyists representing law enforcement agencies, such as the South Dakota Police Chiefs Association, joined the administration’s call for a new facility. Three current employees of the Sioux Falls prison argued for the new building, citing safety concerns in the current arrangement.
Concerns in Pierre have centered around the price tag of the prison, particularly when compared to neighboring states. To the south, Nebraska is building a new prison facility for the comparably low price of $366 million.
Meanwhile, Lincoln County government officials and residents have maintained that the project could all together stunt the development of South Dakota’s fastest growing county by population. Opposition testimony Wednesday morning came from nearby landowners who feel they have been boxed out of the discussion. They fear the ramifications of living near a large prison complex — like sinking property values and overall safety.
Beyond the more than $800 million sticker shock, lawmakers openly wondered how that cost will rise with time. The current site is not close to a major roadway, which will require significant development on that front at significant cost. Wasko said the state’s Department of Transportation will foot that bill, and it is not expected to require another special appropriation. The state is coughing up $10.5 million to the city of Lennox to connect to its sewer line, after the Harrisburg City Council rejected a similar offer.
Operational costs at the new facility compared to the old will rise by about $4.1 million a year.
“They picked a corn field in the middle of Lincoln County,” said local construction company owner Mike Hoffman. “You are going to put basically a city with a population of 2,000 people in the middle of a cornfield. There is no growth structure, there is no infrastructure, there are no roads… There is no natural growth structure to support this. You are going to have to grow everything around this.”
Sarah Ulmer, whose family lives on a farm near the site, contrasted the plans with the women’s prison currently under construction in Rapid City, a project that has received almost no public blowback from residents.
“Doesn’t that speak volumes?” Ulmer asked. “It was properly placed… Not only is it right off I-90, it is being built in a commercially zoned area, east of large shopping, warehouses, and storage units… The answer is commercially zoned and a proper fit.”
The decision to offer a neutral recommendation to the House Appropriations Committee came after a futile attempt to send it on with a favorable recommendation. That failed on an 8-5 vote.
HB 1025 will end up on the House floor before “crossover day” on Feb. 25, when bills originating in one chamber are required to move to the opposite one or otherwise be considered dead. Because HB 1025 is an appropriations bill, it will require a two-thirds vote to move it to the Senate, or 46 members.
It will be an uphill climb for a hotly contested project that Rhoden has deemed a priority of his young administration. The Republican caucus met for hours in a closed-door meeting Tuesday night to debate the project among themselves. According to sources, that meeting concluded with at least 25 holdouts opposed to the current Lincoln County site, enough to kill it on the floor before any Democrats can join in to block it.
One of those “nays” will be Rep. Spencer Gosch. He was the lone member to vote “nay” on moving the project to appropriations with no recommendation.
“It stands against everything I stand for,” Gosch told South Dakota Broadcasters Association after his vote. “The project clearly displays reckless planning, reckless spending, and complete disregard for the people of South Dakota.”