Time for special state prison session

Greetings. So, how’s everyone doing with all this rain, rain, rain? I take that back for the southern portion of Fall River County, as it’s been dry down there.
On Sept. 23, we’re all ordered back to Pierre for a prison special session. We had a new prison bill during that past session that didn’t pass. That prison proposal had it being constructed on two quarters (320 acres) in Lincoln County (44 license plates). The location was approximately 25 miles from the current prison complex. The cost was $825 million, of which we’ve lost a minimum $21 million or as high as $52 million. Yep. Lost. Gone up in smoke.
A few years back, we approved and had built a new medical annex on the current campus. I remember it being a $10 million expenditure. I was against that medical annex, so they flew me and four other legislators who were also against it to the area. I told the governor I had to be back in Pierre by 10 a.m. as I was prime sponsor of and pitching two bills. I thought for sure that would get me out of going to Sioux Falls. It did not.
The Noem Administration had us leaving the aviation hangar in Pierre at 4:30 a.m. In my younger days, I would have just not gone to bed, but I can’t hang like that anymore. So, after seeing the absolutely deplorable condition at the state prison, we all agreed to vote for the new medical annex.
I went to the grand opening and was very impressed with the new facility. What really touched me during that visit was the terrible conditions our state employees were forced to work in. With the new prison, I have the same concern.
The correctional officers and the rest of the staff need better working conditions in the portion of the prison called The Hill. That is where the general population is housed. The last figure I received was 720 inmates there. That portion was built in 1881. Five hundred inmates are at Jamison, which is a much newer separate building and is the maximum security unit. Lastly, at the Sioux Falls campus, there are about 140 work release inmates in another facility.
I still don’t agree with a 1500-1700 bed new prison because we’re replacing a 700-800 bed complex. I do understand the 1500+ figure is because we keep locking up our citizens at a faster rate than they are getting out.
I still haven’t received from anyone an answer to why North Dakota, with roughly the same population, has half as many people incarcerated as South Dakota. I guess no one knows the answer.
As mentioned before, 20 of us in the House wrote to Gov. Rhoden and gave him a road map about what needs to be done for us to vote yea for the new state prison. It appears our demands have been met. Gov. Rhoden even exceeded our demands in setting up a task force to address our recidivism problem.
We have by a long way the highest repeat offender (recidivism) rate in the nation. Also, the task force is going to look into job placement and drug treatment of released or paroled inmates. Kudos to Gov. Rhoden!
To leave on a positive note, I’m president of the Black Hills Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). We just had our monthly meeting Sept. 19. Oh! I should mention that this organization represents all ranks and all six branches of the military. Can you name them? Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Space Force. We are rated the top lobbying group in the nation. Anyway, after the meeting, a retired Navy lieutenant commander asked about doing next month’s program (Oct. 17).
He has been doing a deep dive into our $36 trillion and rising national debt and thinks he found a way of paying it off! Right now the interest we pay on our national debt is over $1 trillion per year, which is more than the entire Department of Defense costs us. Stay tuned and I’ll divulge his findings after our Oct. 17 meeting. A hint is the gold reserves we own and the price of gold skyrocketing to over $3,500 per ounce. Now wouldn’t that be something if we could be debt free as a nation?
Remember, in South Dakota, our state constitution prohibits us from doing any deficit spending, so as a state, we are debt free. The federal government needs to do the same.