Rhoden hits rest button hit on prison funding

Greetings! Only two weeks left of session. We officially have our last day Thursday, March 13. Then we return March 31 for consideration of any governor’s vetoes.

Probably the biggest news this past week was the penitentiary. Let’s just call it the pen.

To pass legislation authorizing $825 million to build a new pen it would take a two-thirds vote or 47 yes votes of the 70 house members. That vote didn’t take place because we didn’t think there would be enough. We did vote on transferring the remaining $182 million out of the general fund and into the prison construction fund.

Back during Covid, our state manditorially received funds of about $500 million. We discussed the predicament that put us in, such as the country being $28 trillion in debt, and our federal government was sending absurd amounts of money to the states. The predicament was that if we sent it back, it wouldn’t go to reducing the debt and probably would just be sent to another state such as Minnesota.

We did the next best thing. We set up a prison trust for when the time came to build a new pen. We would then have a jump start on paying for it. Well, we are there.

This prison fund has gained about $70 million in interest and we are within $182 million from paying cash for the new $825 million men’s penitentiary.

I think all legislators understand the need for a new facility. The main portion, called “The Hill,” was constructed in 1881. Yep, eight years before statehood. I guess we can’t say we didn’t get our money’s worth out of that facility.

Because the yes votes weren’t there for the new pen, and the vote to transfer $182 million to the prison construction fund failed, we were at an impasse. Gov. Rhoden showed great leadership in calling a press conference announcing we are going to hit the reset button. A pen study committee was put together with their first meeting set for April 2. There will be several other meetings culminating in a special legislative session on July 22. On that date, we will have the committee’s recommended plan and we will vote it up or down. This committee will consider all options, including building on the present location on land that is next to the 35- acre complex.

The Department of Correction’s current plan was to move the prisoners staying on The Hill (800 give or take) to the new proposed site 25 miles away in Lincoln County. The remaining prisoners would stay on the present campus. Can you call prisons a campus? Doesn’t seem right. 

Anyway, there are 500 maximum security prisoners in the place called Jamison Annex and another 130 minimum security prisoners there also. South Dakota also has another minimum security prison in Springfield with approximately 900 inmates.

Enough on the penitentiary. We will let the committee do their due diligence and decide before July 22 what we may do. Next week I will try to cover the various property tax bills that aren’t fairing well, and other bills I’ve submitted. Until then.