SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO.com) — Former South Dakota House speaker Steve Haugaard is trying to get the legislature to hit the brakes on funding a new men’s penitentiary. He has been persistent in his opposition to the new prison, saying it won’t address the real problem, which he says is a lack of effective rehabilitation programs. Haugaard recently sent a video presentation to a legislative committee, urging them to forgo the prison project, and instead adopt prison programming that’s been successful in Texas and other states.
Haugaard says it boils down to a question of paying big money to house more inmates, or developing programs that help them turn their lives around.
Governor Larry Rhoden says failure to build the facility isn’t an option. But Haugaard is trying to convince legislators otherwise.
Corrections Secretary Kelly Wasko says the new facility is needed to provide space for conducting programming, space she says doesn’t exist now. The prison funding bill is now before the joint appropriations committee, for a decision on whether to add enough money to the prison funding account to pay for construction. Contractors have given the state a guaranteed maximum price of 825-million dollars for the facility, proposed to be built between Harrisburg and Canton.
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