Clock ticking for prison site

By Bill Harlan, Journal staff | Thursday, February 22, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

PIERRE — The South Dakota Department of Corrections is still looking for a site for a minimum-security prison in Rapid City, as the clock ticks on legislation to pay for the land.

If Corrections Secretary Tim Reisch doesn’t find a site in the next couple of weeks, while the Legislature is still in session, the project could be delayed for a year.

Reisch told lawmakers Tuesday that he would be scouting locations in Rapid City today — his second trip in as many weeks.

The Corrections Department had hoped to buy property on Creek Drive in east Rapid City, where the department operates a temporary, 100-bed “minimum unit.”

The department would have built a new facility with 250 beds or more.

The new unit also would have a visiting area, room for prison programs and for offices — amenities the current cramped quarters lack.

But neighbors on nearby Ash Avenue protested the Creek Drive plan, saying the unit should not be near homes, and earlier this month, it was scrapped.

On Tuesday morning, Reisch told the Senate Appropriations Committee the state still needed a minimum-security prison at Rapid City, near jobs. The inmates at the Rapid City Minimum Unit are either in a work release program or they are doing community service. They are nonviolent offenders, and most will be released soon.

The state prison system has 420 minimum-security inmates from the Black Hills area.

“It’s extremely important for an inmate who’s finishing a prison term to have some stability in their life, to have some money in their bank account and particularly to have a job,” Reisch said.

Although Reisch has the authority to look for locations throughout the area, Reisch’s search is focused on Rapid City. “More remote locations are acceptable for higher custody prisons,” he said. “If this was a maximum custody prison, we could put it out in Box Elder without a problem.”

Reisch said he had looked at a dozen or so sites in the Rapid City area — most of them unsuitable because of location or lack of utilities.

If Reisch finds a site, HB1060 will be amended to include the purchase price.

The Senate Appropriations Committee agreed to delay action on HB1060, which originally included $500,000 to buy the Creek Drive property. The bill already has been amended to appropriate a place-holding $1 to give the department time to find another site.

The Legislature adjourns March 7, though lawmakers reconvene March 26 for a final day usually reserved to consider vetoes. Department of Correction spokesman Michael Winder said Tuesday that if a location isn’t found in the next couple of weeks or sooner, “We’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com