SIOUX FALLS, S.D (KELO) — Emailed statements from the South Dakota Department of Corrections have briefly described violence at Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield on July 9 and 10. According to statements from the DOC, “several” inmates fighting each other on Tuesday resulted in minor injuries to staff as well as non-life-threatening injuries to six inmates, and there was another fight “with a few inmates” on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, inmates at Mike Durfee State Prison made it clear to KELOLAND News how they feel about the Springfield facility.
Santella: Do you feel safe in there?
“No,” various inmates responded.
Kristina Kopejtka, whose son is an inmate at Mike Durfee State Prison, says there are reasons they don’t feel safe.
“I do believe they are short-staffed,” Kopejtka said. “I do believe there needs to be better training.”
A 2022 report on South Dakota’s prisons stated that even though “staffing positions are difficult to fill throughout the SDDOC system, the situation is especially dire in Springfield where the labor pool is small and spread out geographically.”
“The building condition is bad, doors to locks don’t work, the walls are falling apart, I would like for somebody to come inside this building and see what’s it really like,” said Diego Nelson, a current inmate at Mike Durfee State Prison who spoke with KELOLAND News over the phone on Thursday.
When addressing a replacement for the South Dakota State Penitentiary (SDSP) in Sioux Falls, the 2022 report also says that the “facility would not only replace the SDSP but also provide relief for the Mike Durfee State Prison.”
For family members of people housed in Springfield, a new facility can’t come soon enough.
“My concerns are definitely for the safety and like I said, I’d never heard him talk like that before,” said Tiffany Brooks of Woonsocket, whose significant other is an inmate at Mike Durfee State Prison.
Brooks spoke with KELOLAND News on Monday about a phone conversation she had on July 9 with her significant other.
“You could just hear a lot of noise that sounded like just rumbling, yelling, things like that, and that went on for a little while,” Brooks said. “And then it kind of died down. You could hear some yelling in the background, and then it started up again, and it was loud, it was scary, and you know, Gary said, ‘Where’s the staff.’ He said that a couple of times.”
“Gary” is not her significant other’s name, but rather a pseudonym. Brooks doesn’t want to publicly share his name, and before she sat down with KELOLAND News on Monday, she checked with him first.
“There are so many risks that are involved with saying anything to anyone,” Brooks said. “They worry about retaliation, and not only from the inmates but also staff.”
Her significant other’s concerns began long before last week.
“He’s been saying for months that he doesn’t feel safe,” Brooks said.
“Blood was everywhere,” Kopejtka said as she shared what her son told her about recent violence at Mike Durfee State Prison. “He says it was gang-on-gang violence.”
Kopejtka says her son wasn’t hurt in the violence, but the possibility nevertheless still concerns her.
“That’s my fear as a parent,” Kopejtka said. “He tells me, ‘Mom I can handle myself, don’t worry about me.'”
Still, she does just that.
“I do,” Kopejtka said. “I’m like what if you’re collateral damage, what do I do if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time or a mistaken identity.”
“I physically saw multiple inmates getting dragged out on stretchers, inmates getting rushed in wheelchairs to the medical services where ambulances were lined up,” Nelson said.
Nelson was one of the inmates shouting his concerns to KELOLAND News through barbed wire and fencing on Wednesday.
“People have been getting seriously hurt here, and it is not just fights,” Nelson said. “It’s weapons. It’s everything,”
Asked by KELOLAND News about the severity of inmates’ injuries sustained in the fights, the DOC said in a statement that “There have been no deaths and no life-threatening injuries.”
KELOLAND News has requested an interview with Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko three times in recent days; all three requests have gone unanswered. Reporters are far from the only people seeking answers and clarity.
“It’s just a scary situation, and the DOC needs to do better and needs to be more transparent when these types of things happen,” Kopejtka said.
