SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakotans are getting a better idea of what a new men’s prison planned for rural Lincoln County between Canton and Harrisburg will cost.
“Total project cost is 825 million,” Brittni Skipper, director of finance and administration with the South Dakota Department of Corrections, told lawmakers in Pierre on Thursday. “With the money in the incarceration construction fund, that 505 million, plus interest that will be earned on that money. We’ll plan to present a plan next session, coming up session, to fully fund the project.”
Skipper told lawmakers that interest will mean that less than $200 million still needs to be dedicated to the project. And as officials look to the future, Department of secretary Kellie Wasko says overcrowding is the reason for problems today.
“That’s why we have such limited out-of-cell time, such limited movement, that’s why you get a lot of calls from family members, ‘why are they not getting the same privileges they got before,'” Wasko said. “Because we’ve increased the capacity but we’ve never increased the staffing.”
Lawmakers still have to pass legislation to approve the new prison’s construction.
