ABERDEEN, SD (AP) – Officials are measuring the need for a regional prison in northeast South Dakota.
Representatives from 10 counties in the area, including sheriffs and county commissioners, were recently invited to a meeting in Aberdeen to reflect on an idea first mentioned by Brown County Commissioner Duane Sutton after his re-election to the commission in November. Since then, he said, several companies have contacted and provided information.
“Our prison numbers keep going off the charts,” said Sutton. “We want to know who would be interested.”
Brown County Sheriff’s Office Vice Chairman Dave Lunzman said the county simply ran out of space. While the county has been able to find accommodation for inmates in recent weeks, space in these facilities is also limited.
“And every time we send someone out, we have to bring them back,” he said. “We’re trying to find a solution. In my eyes it is a regional prison. “
Lunzman, with its population, two hospitals, and judges, said Brown County was a logical place.
“Moving people and not having places is inefficient,” he said.
Brown County Attorney Ernest Thompson said the county prisons are designed to provide the space necessary to hold people accountable and that state law is written so that certain offenses are presumed to be suspended. That means a suspended sentence and 30 days in prison.
Now, he said, the average jail term is 30 days, but when jail space is tight, getting a jail term of 60, 90 or 120 days is difficult in some cases, the Aberdeen American News reported.
Thompson said there was a lull in criminal matters in mid-2020 as the region grappled with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the number of cases has increased since then and he expects this to continue this year.
However, each county has its own needs.
In Marshall County, Sheriff Damian Bahr said they had maybe two or three inmates at any one time. They are housed in other prisons because local needs are simply not high enough to support a prison. Marshall relies on nearby county jails in Brown, Roberts, and Day counties, he said.
“A regional cause would be good for all smaller counties,” he said.
McPherson County’s Sheriff Dave Ackerman said the county hadn’t had a jail since the 1970s.
“Moving inmates is something we are used to,” he said, noting that the number of prisons in the area is increasing.
“It is important for us to find a place where we can call home,” he said.
Day County Sheriff Ryan Rucktaeschel said he agreed to the space requirements. While he usually has room for the local inmates, Day’s challenge is the age of the facility, which is roughly 50 to 60 years old.
His greatest challenge is to find space for women and young people, as they have to be separated from the other inmates. If he takes a woman he will lose the use of his entire west wing.
In Walworth County, where the prison closed in October, Sheriff Josh Bohl said the typical housing needs are between 10 and over 30. Without a prison of its own, Walworth can find room elsewhere.
There are sections of state law that allow counties to reach a joint agreement to establish a regional prison. Staci Ackerman, executive director of the South Dakota Sheriff’s Association, said there are four sections of state law that specifically address the concept. Three have been in place since 1986, she said.
“Legislators then foresaw the need for a regional prison,” she said.
However, she also found that the provisions are not detailed and clear enough.
While there is no pending state legislature that specifically addresses a regional prison, District 3 MP Drew Dennert, R-Aberdeen, spoke briefly about a bill that could simply provide a new source of income for the districts. That is House Bill 1230, which proposes diverting a percentage of the sales and use tax paid to the state and putting that proceeds into a capital improvement fund for use by the county.
Under this legislation, an initial 0.05% would be diverted, which would translate into approximately $ 578,803 for all counties. However, the invoice also contains a provision according to which the percentage increase should take place every year by 0.05% up to 0.25% in the 2026 financial year. By then, the projected revenue that will be shared among the counties would be $ 3.5 million.
Dennert said the counties in the region could use this revenue and use it to build a regional prison.
As it has just been written, the districts would have to submit a request for payment through the state. But he talked about changing the bill so that the money goes straight to the counties for immediate use or to save for a specific use.
When a district commissioner raised concerns about the running costs of running prisons, Dennert said the bill could also be amended to include prison running costs.
The invoice has several steps before approval. While it was passed unanimously by the House Taxation Committee, it is now under review before House funds.
Attendees were told that the next step is to select a company to represent the owner who can walk the districts through the process and conduct a needs assessment in each of the districts. This representative would also provide cost estimates for the project.
Senator Al Novstrup, of District 3, R-Aberdeen, said that if a funding application is to be made before lawmakers, there is a lot of work to be done ahead of time before the next session. It starts with knowing not only the construction costs, but also the costs of running the facility. With 12 lawmakers in northeast South Dakota and a total of 105 covering the entire state, it is important to reach out and have face-to-face meetings with each of those lawmakers for assistance.
“If you don’t win the fight before it starts, you lose,” he said.