South Dakota Lawmakers Deadlock on $825M Prison Plan

PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota lawmakers remain at an impasse over a stalled $825 million prison construction plan, with no clear path forward to replace aging penitentiaries or address the state’s growing prison population.

The latest setback came Tuesday when the South Dakota Senate voted 20-15 against creating a task force to explore new options for prison construction.

“What next? We have no other alternative,” said Sen. Kevin Jensen, R-Canton, who unsuccessfully pushed for the task force.
“We have no place to go.”

This vote followed earlier drama in the House of Representatives, where a bill to approve the final $182 million needed for the $825 million project failed to get enough votes on Friday.

Millions in Limbo as Lawmakers Struggle to Agree

While lawmakers previously set aside more than $600 million in a prison construction account, disagreements over the proposed site, costs, and priorities have prevented progress.

There is also $62 million in approved spending authority from previous sessions meant to prepare the proposed site 15 miles south of Sioux Falls in Lincoln County—where the Department of Corrections hopes to build a 1,500-bed men’s prison to replace parts of the 1881-era Sioux Falls penitentiary.

However, the location has been controversial since its announcement in 2023, facing strong opposition from local residents and new lawmakers skeptical of the project’s scale and cost.

“What we have here is this current Legislature trying to unwind the work of the previous Legislature and do things over again,” said Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre.
“The other Legislature had already authorized and appropriated very significant funds to move forward on a certain plan.”

Diverging Views on the Path Forward

Opposition to the task force proposal stemmed from various concerns:

• Sen. Tamara Grove, R-Lower Brule, feared it wouldn’t address sentencing reform, which she argued is a root cause of prison overcrowding.
• Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, pointed out that the Department of Corrections did not back the task force idea, making it unlikely to succeed.

‍What’s Next? A Race Against Time

Lawmakers now have less than two weeks left in their annual legislative session to break the deadlock. The ongoing gridlock threatens not only prison construction planning but also next year’s state budget, with hundreds of millions of dollars hanging in uncertainty.

Without a resolution, the future of South Dakota’s prison system remains in limbo, raising concerns about overcrowding, outdated facilities, and financial planning for the state.

Originally reported by Black Hills Pioneer.