State prison project draws strong views, harsh criticism
[Editor’s note: This is part one in a three part series on the proposed Lincoln County Correctional Facility.]
By Stu Whitney, South Dakota News Watch
South Dakota’s four-year process to address the state’s correctional needs evolved into a plan to build a new men’s prison on 160 acres of farmland in Lincoln County between Harrisburg and Canton, with a price tag of $825 million.
That’s when the drama really began.
Landowners near the Lincoln County site railed against the Department of Corrections for a lack of transparency during the search process.
Some lawmakers questioned the project’s rising cost compared to comparable facilities in other states, urging more study for such a significant investment.
Supporters of the plan, including Gov. Larry Rhoden and his predecessor, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, insisted that the nearly 150-year-old South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls needs to be replaced, and waiting longer will just make the project more costly.
It’s a volatile issue, as might be expected for the most expensive publicly funded project in state history. Opinions on when, where and how to build a new prison depend on whom you ask.
To help sort it all out, News Watch sought different perspectives of some of the key people involved and let their views and experiences.
Corrections secretary: ‘My job is to deliver’
Kellie Wasko knew what she was getting into when Noem appointed her as South Dakota Secretary of Corrections in February 2022.
Her predecessor, Mike Leidhol, had retired in August 2020 after being placed on administrative leave as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse and nepotism at the state penitentiary.
The Department of Corrections, which operates eight state facilities with about 3,800 inmates, was short on staffing and credibility. It was also running out of prison space, according to a consultant hired to prepare a statewide facility plan.
That report from Omaha, Nebraska-based DLR Group was released publicly about a month before Wasko took office, providing a road map to what became a priority for the Noem administration to address the state’s correctional capacity needs.
Wasko, who began her career as a correctional nurse in Idaho and served as deputy executive director of corrections in Colorado, serves as the point person for the executive branch mission – now under Rhoden – to bring the $825 million prison project to fruition.
In a one-on-one interview with News Watch at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre on Feb. 6, Wasko acknowledged that her role in the process is a “heavy lift.”
“It’s an emotional subject,” said Wasko, 53, sitting in the House of Representatives gallery after testifying at a committee hearing. “Building a penitentiary of this magnitude is something that South Dakota has not done in any of our lifetimes. We’re building something that’s meant to last another hundred years.”
Staffing issues and clashes with prison industry employers have marred Wasko’s tenure at DOC. Critics such as Doug Weber, the former warden of the state penitentiary appointed by Gov. Bill Janklow in 1996, have questioned her grasp of the state’s correctional landscape.
But Wasko’s background in correctional health services and focus on reducing recidivism has steeled her resolve in seeking change. She noted that the modern efficiencies of a 1,500-bed medium-to-maximum security complex would provide increased safety for staff but also expanded space for classrooms and counseling for inmates.
“It’s about building an appropriate facility that eases overcrowding, but it’s also about putting that focus on rehabilitation while they’re incarcerated,” said Wasko, who previously served as CEO of Denver-based Correctional Health Partners, a for-profit company that provides health care to prison facilities.
She pointed to South Dakota’s rising incarceration rate and lack of commitment to justice reforms meant to help non-violent offenders receive alcohol and drug counseling and parole rather than prison time.
“There’s been some give and take,” said Wasko, whose department is now using prison capacity models that fit the national standard of the American Correctional Association rather than the previously cited operational capacity of DOC.
Critics such as NOPE claim her department has had blinders on since targeting the Lincoln County site, ignoring concerns about the remote location and ballooning costs.
Wasko spoke at a meeting of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 7, citing the authority granted her by House Bill 1017 in 2023 to purchase land and Senate Bill 49 in 2024 to begin site preparation and utility upgrades.
Former warden: Time for a ‘pause’ on prison project
Weber’s career in the South Dakota correctional industry spanned 32 years, including stints as chief warden and director of adult prison operations. There are few people as knowledgeable about the state penitentiary as Weber, who retired in 2013.
He thinks the aging Sioux Falls facility still has some life in it.
“My biggest concern is that they’re replacing the wrong prison,” said Weber, 70, who has been publicly critical of the Lincoln County prison project.
He told News Watch that the facility he’s concerned about is Mike Durfee State Prison on the former University of South Dakota-Springfield campus, 30 miles west of Yankton. That medium-custody prison currently houses 1,200 inmates, compared to 754 at the state penitentiary.
The buildings being utilized for housing inmates in Springfield were built as college dormitories and “are not conducive to a prison,” according to Weber.
“It’s stick-built like our houses, made out of lumber and nails and shingles,” he said of the Springfield prison complex. “So it’s very susceptible to all kinds of things, including natural disasters or deliberate inmate actions. I understand that the state penitentiary is old, but it will never be blown down by a natural disaster. It will never burn down.”
DOC officials have said that building a new prison in Lincoln County will help manage the number of inmates in Springfield, where violence flared over two days in July, with several injuries reported before order was restored.
Weber sees the design of Mike Durfee as a problem, not just overcrowding.
“There’s no way to secure inmates in those dormitories,” he said. “All the staff could do (during the violence last summer) was pull back to a safe area and allow the inmates to do what they were going to do and reinforce the perimeter to make sure there were no escapes.”
Weber has called for a “pause” in the Lincoln County prison project to allow for more study on which facilities should stay or go. One of his ideas is to replace Mike Durfee with a new prison on state land in the Yankton area, relying on the Jameson Annex in Sioux Falls to provide maximum-security beds.
Asked why he waited until recently to publicly oppose DOC plans, Weber said that he realized the urgency of the 2025 legislative session as a proving ground for the project.
“It became really obvious that this was it,” he said. “If there was any hope at all of pausing this and doing something much wiser, the time is now.”
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email every few days to get stories as soon as they’re published. Contact Stu Whitney at stu.whitney@sdnewswatch.org