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| S.D. Lawmakers Approve Prison Expansion |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/17/2003 |
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A state Senate committee agreed March 3 to allow the Corrections Department to expand South Dakota's prison system. HB1280 would authorize the state Corrections Department to use $11.8 million in federal funds to update facilities and build additions. Another $1.3 million in state money would be used. The department has more than $500,000 it can use this year, but it will have to ask for about $700,000 from the state next year. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Apa, R-Lead, said he would reluctantly support the bill. 'We have to do something, change the direction, I don't know what,' Apa said. The committee passed the bill 6-3, sending it to the full Senate. The bill would allow the department to construct a 192-bed addition to the maximum-security Jameson Annex at the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, a 400-bed housing addition and improved laundry and food services at the state prison in Springfield, and a 200-bed minimum-security trusty unit in the Black Hills. The state's prisons are full, said state Corrections Secretary Tim Reisch. 'We can't keep putting these inmates in our facilities,' Reisch said. 'There comes a time when it's unsafe to continue to triple-cell more and more of our inmates.' The expansion would be only a temporary solution unless a panel appointed by the governor changes sentencing laws to reduce prison numbers, he said. 'If nothing changes, we'll be right back in the same place as now in 2010 or 2011,' he said. 'But hopefully change is coming.' Without an expansion, the state will have to pay to house prisoners somewhere else, which would end up being more expensive, Reisch said. Some lawmakers said they were reluctant to approve a prison expansion because the problem will continue to grow. The state will continue to fill its prisons, no matter how many beds the Corrections Department adds, said Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City. 'If we do this, these facilities are going to stay full,' Napoli said. 'There's no way that we're not going to have people filling them up.' |
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