SIOUX FALLS - The inmate population in South Dakota's prison population has leveled off in recent years, a trend that corrections officials expect to continue in the foreseeable future.

"Over the long term, we're looking for the women inmate population to grow at about 6 percent a year, with men at about 2 percent," state corrections Deputy Secretary Laurie Feiler of Pierre said.

The average daily count of male inmates in the entire corrections system peaked at 3,151 in May of 2006. It then fell to 2,985 in December of that year and, with a few slight dips and rises, has held steady since then. The count was 2,986 in October.

The count of women inmates rose to 382 in March of 2006, dipped for about a year and then climbed to a peak of 392 last January. The count was 384 in October.

Expanded prison facilities have eliminated most overcrowding problems that existed before that construction, Feiler said.

The leveling off in numbers is likely attributable to general reduction in the commission of certain crimes, in part through education and counseling efforts aimed at breaking criminal-behavior cycles, she said.

The state also works to reduce recidivism - or the return to prison by parolees who get in trouble on the outside.

The state has revised the way it calculates recidivism so that it applies only to inmates who return to prison within three years or being released.

Preliminary numbers on that new system indicate a recidivism rate of 38 percent for South Dakota.

A 15-state survey of states that calculate recidivism that same way showed an average rate of almost 51.8 percent, Feiler said.

That study included Nebraska, 27 percent; Ohio, 39 percent; Montana, 40 percent; Iowa, 35 percent; Wyoming, 40.8 percent.

Feiler said the prison system uses education, work and a chemical dependency treatment program as part of the package to prepare inmates to succeed outside of prison. "We're real serious about getting people access to the services they need, and I think we're making real progress there," she said.

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