South Dakota prisons face overcrowding; capacity at women's prison hits new record

PIERRE — Overcrowding at the state’s prisons continues to be a problem, Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko said.

Wasko was in front of the Joint Appropriations Committee on Monday morning to present the DOC budget. During her presentation, she touched on the record amount of populations certain prisons across the state had and why there’s a need for the two new prisons currently in development.

On average, South Dakota’s prisons are 129% overcrowded. The most overcrowding is occurring at the Sioux Falls Minimum Security Center, with the population exceeding the prison’s design capacity by 250%. Meanwhile, the Jamison Annex, which is meant for the highest level security offender, is at 84% design capacity, meaning it’s currently underhoused.

Wasko said the state is facing a record average daily population of more than 600 women in the state’s two women prisons. That’s nearly double the prisons’ daily capacity.

“That number doesn’t seem to want to halter at all,” she said, noting a projection of the state’s female prisoner population wasn’t supposed to hit 600 until 2031.

The high security women’s prison in Pierre is at 148% of design capacity, an 8% drop from this time last year, while the women’s minimum security prison, also in Pierre, is at 149% of design capacity, a 26% increase from last year.

Asked why prisons across the state continue to see an uptick in prisoners, Wasko couldn’t point to one single reason, but rather that the state’s sentencing guidelines do not help deter people from coming back inside.

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“Putting people in prison for 90 days doesn’t nothing but make their life worse,” she said, noting that most prison programs last 12 weeks. “One thing that baffles me… I don’t understand how somebody has a crime they get sentenced to 20 years, 18 gets suspended and they get two and they only have to do 50% of it, they’re out in six months. I have more of those than you would ever believe.”

She added more than 90% of prisoners have some kind of substance abuse disorder when they enter the corrections system.

To ease some of the overcrowding at the Sioux Falls Minimum Security Center, Wasko said DOC is currently transporting 140 inmates to an unoccupied dormitory at the Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield.

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Wasko added she’s hopeful that by the time the new men’s prison in rural Lincoln County is completed in 2029, it’ll still be large enough to absorb the growing prison population. There’s also been space made in the prison’s design that would accommodate for another housing cell.

But Wasko noted without the continued funding for the construction of the women’s prison, “I do worry a little bit about the female institution if we don’t do something.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota prisons continue to face overcrowding. What can be done?