Drugs are prevalent in state prison

Greetings. Let’s talk some more about the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. 

Much has been said about the pen’s ancient building as it was built in 1881. Well, let’s look at that a little further. The portion of the pen they call “The Hill” is where the main population is housed. As of the end of May there are 724 inmates. My info says it holds 800. Next, there is a maximum security Jamison Unit with around 500 inmates and then another 140 or so in a work-release, relaxed prison. Add that up and we are at 1,364.

We only need half that size, so perhaps less than $400 million is more in order. Last I calculated we have around $775 million in the bank. That’s after we blew $52 million, perhaps more, on the facility 25 miles south of the current location in Lincoln County. 

In addition to needing to replace The Hill because of its age, it was always stated that it’s impossible to stop all the infiltration of all kinds of paraphernalia like illegal drugs, cell phones, knives, etc. Here’s my personal most recent experience of The Hill.

On Thursday, July 31, twelve of us attended the St. Dysmas service held in the chapel that is located in the bowels of The Hill. We all sent the needed paperwork to be vetted way before July 31. We arrived at The Hill at approximately 6:30 p.m. for the 7-9 p.m. church service.

On the way up to the chapel, I smelled a putrid odor I hadn’t ever smelled before. Once inside the chapel, we had about 15 minutes to mingle and visit with approximately 80 inmates who showed up for this church service.

I asked a couple of the inmates I knew what that repulsive smell was in the halls coming up. They kind of nervously smiled and said it was K2. Me being the most ignorant person on the planet with illegal drugs, or drug jargon, I told them I didn’t know what K2 was. They chuckled and then said it is also called T-rex. I still had no idea, so another inmate interjected that it is synthetic marijuana. I asked if people are smoking synthetic marijuana in the hallways of the prison and they all nodded.

Next, the church service started and it was a wonderful experience celebrating one inmate giving himself to Christ and getting baptized and another getting out/being released. So we had a special event for those joyous happenings.

We had to make our way down out of the chapel to our point of entry. The smell of K2 was even more prevalent on the way out! Today I received the following from someone inside The Hill: “Penitentiary has been locked down again since Monday [Aug. 11]! It’s commonplace to see inmates walking around stoned like zombies. Some walk with puke down their front. Also narcaning inmates frequently, once they recover they are sent back to their cells instead of a trip to the ER.”