SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — There are 28 acres behind the existing men’s state prison in Sioux Falls but it’s not suitable for a prison, South Dakota Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko said at Tuesday’s Lincoln County Commissioners meeting.
Wasko said the space isn’t large enough for an adequate prison.
A multi-story prison on that 28 acres has too many safety concerns.
“You see jails that build up,” Wasko said. Jails can build up because they aren’t required to have dining halls or libraries or other options required for prisons, Wasko said.
“Building straight up creates problems of how you get inmates up and down,” Wasko said. “You don’t want inmates unattended in elevator shafts. You don’t want inmates unattended together in stairwells. You don’t want inmates in elevators with staff. You don’t want inmates in stairwells with staff.”
The planned new men’s prison is the complex-style design recommendation. “What we’re building is very standard to modern corrections,” Wasko said. The design allows pods to be securely monitored and for staff to quickly respond to other pods, she said.
The consultant DLR Group’s study recommendation was for a new multi-class men’s prison on a 160 acre site with a minimum of 100 acres so 28 acres isn’t large enough, Wasko said.
It’s possible to add a story to the foundation of the D unit of the Jameson Annex but that would only hold 192 offenders, Wasko said. The DOC still needs space for more than 800 beds, she said. Nor does it solve 1,300 bed medium custody problem.
Ryan Bruner, a senior policy advisor for Gov. Kristi Noem, said the FAA rules for the nearby Sioux Falls Regional Airport would likely hinder any multi-story construction at the existing prison site.
Bruner said the DOC has not been able to get a crane on site for certain work because of FAA height rules for planes and runways. It’s possible that one story could be added to Jameson but a multi-story on the 28 acres is unlikely, he said.
The DOC has discussed this with the FAA and the Sioux Falls airport but hasn’t received a definite answer, Bruner said, but, even if one runway is decommissioned, there are still height issues. It would be several years before any construction could happen on those 28 acres.
Meanwhile, the cost of a new men’s prison would continue to increase by around hundreds of millions of dollars, Bruner said.
